"The budget requires complex knowledge. One needs to understand not only what is written in it, but also what is hidden between the lines," said Viktor Orban in his weekly Friday morning interview on Kossuth Radio's Good Morning, Hungary program. Speaking about the EU budget, the prime minister explained that at least 20 percent of Europeans' — including Hungarians' — money would go to Ukraine.
One needs to be aware that 10 to 12 percent of the budget is spent on interest repayments on loans jointly taken out earlier. Adding this up, thirty percent of the budget goes to things that weren't included in the previous one, he said.
"That’s why everyone in the European Union is shouting," he added.
The biggest problem with the budget is that it lacks a clear strategic foundation, PM Orban explained. If we don’t know what it’s for, it can’t be good, because first we have to define what goals we want to achieve with it. As he put it,
the EU budget has one obvious goal: to bring Ukraine into the EU and transfer these funds to Ukraine.
According to the prime minister, the right approach would be not to admit Ukraine, but instead to develop a cooperative relationship with the country.
What Will Happen to the Farmers?
He also said that uncertainty surrounds not only Ukraine but agriculture funding as well. PM Orban raised the question: what will happen to farmers if the EU stops supporting them in the future? He believes this budget won’t even survive into the next year. In his view, the European countries will not accept it.
According to the prime minister, the European Commission is moving money around in the budget in a confusing and complicated manner. He believes that the Commission has no vision for the future of European agriculture. It is doing all this because it wants to give the money to Ukraine. Viktor Orban said it is like migration: once we let it in, we cannot get rid of it. A country cannot be removed from the European Union, he said. If we admit a large country, we won’t be able to get rid of it, and from that point on, their economic problems become our economic problems. If it happens, the money will keep flowing there for decades, he said.