So, like any club, membership gives you certain rights but also entails certain duties, like respecting human rights and the rule of law.
EU's method is simple: Either you agree, or...
Hungary and Poland are being asked by the EU to comply to the EU sanctions against Russia (in favour of US fracking-gas, among other trade regulations, and giving up on other trading as direct neighbors of Russia), being baited by the EU's big bail-out, as Russia-neighboring "US-Cowboys"... a story that can tell a lot, and may not be easily understood, considering the state of information as delivered by 'our' media, these days. Just tell me, where'd the "global village" go, oh EU?!
There comes a point where negotiation becomes surrender. Those actively undermining you will always demand more than their right. Those behind the Great Reset have been creating no-win situations for voters for decades to this exact end.
Over the summer Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki led the opposition to the EU’s budget and COVID-19 relief package standing firm that funds not be tied to any internal political decisions member EU states make.
Both of these countries have incurred the wrath of German Chancellor Angela Merkel over things they do she doesn’t like, invoking Article 7 against Poland over changes made to its Supreme Court, for example.
So, this is nothing new. Neither is the way the EU conducts itself in negotiations. For the past four years we’ve watched the EU put the United Kingdom through the worst kind of psychological torture over Brexit negotiations which have been anything but.
oh grief, where do I start..
Despite what you might want to believe, the EU project was all about creating the structures and open markets required for peace in Europe. It is not about German hegemony as it has massive checks and balances built into its system. It is also fundamentally based on national sovereignty using a bottom-up system, so no, the sovereignty of either Poland or Hungary has not been called into question. From Wikipedia:
Through successive enlargements, the European Union has grown from the six founding states (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) to the current 27. Countries accede to the union by becoming party to the founding treaties, thereby subjecting themselves to the privileges and obligations of EU membership. This entails a partial delegation of sovereignty to the institutions in return for representation within those institutions, a practice often referred to as "pooling of sovereignty".[120][121]
To become a member, a country must meet the Copenhagen criteria, defined at the 1993 meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen. These require a stable democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law; a functioning market economy; and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law. Evaluation of a country's fulfilment of the criteria is the responsibility of the European Council.[122]Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty provides the basis for a member to leave the Union. Two territories have left the Union: Greenland (an autonomous province of Denmark) withdrew in 1985;[123] the United Kingdom formally invoked Article 50 of the Consolidated Treaty on European Union in 2017, and became the only sovereign state to leave when it withdrew from the EU in 2020.
So, like any club, membership gives you certain rights but also entails certain duties, like respecting human rights and the rule of law. It doesn't mean you can stay a member of a club when you contravene its founding principles, which is what the Art. 7 proceedings were all about.
Brexit is all about national hysteria whipped up by fantasies of days of empire past. The reality is likely to be very different. Just as one example. The EU is quite within its rights to protect its borders and the biggest stumbling block in the Brexit negotiations is about the Irish / UK border. It also has a fundamental interest in avoiding a return of the Troubles. Which, incidentally, the US does too.
So the short message is: Those nationalist governments flouting the rule of law and ignoring fundamental human rights as laid down in the founding documents of the EU simply have no place in the EU. IMO they should follow the UK's example and leave.
The fact that this is precisely what a certain individual in a failed socialist state to the East is aiming for does not escape notice: the break-up of the EU and weakening the global rules-based order is part of Putin's playbook. Whether you are aware of it or not, this is precisely the line of argument you are parroting on his behalf.
There comes a point where negotiation becomes surrender. Those actively undermining you will always demand more than their right. Those behind the Great Reset have been creating no-win situations for voters for decades to this exact end.
Over the summer Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki led the opposition to the EU’s budget and COVID-19 relief package standing firm that funds not be tied to any internal political decisions member EU states make.
Both of these countries have incurred the wrath of German Chancellor Angela Merkel over things they do she doesn’t like, invoking Article 7 against Poland over changes made to its Supreme Court, for example.
So, this is nothing new. Neither is the way the EU conducts itself in negotiations. For the past four years we’ve watched the EU put the United Kingdom through the worst kind of psychological torture over Brexit negotiations which have been anything but.
