The Hungarian prime minister has said that decisions made in Brussels are increasingly not being carried out by member states.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stated that the EU is starting to disintegrate as member states, now divided between those advocating for war and those for peace, are increasingly ignoring decisions made in Brussels.
In an interview with Magyar Nemzet newspaper published on Wednesday, Orban mentioned that this process was taking place even as Brussels, with its “bureaucracy of imperial ambitions”, was pushing to expand its authority over national governments.
”The European Union today is in a state of disintegration …This is how the union breaks apart: decisions are made in Brussels, but they aren’t implemented,” Orban said, pointing out that non – compliance usually spreads from one country to others.
When asked if Europe is being reorganized into a war economy, he answered yes. Orban said that the political, economic, and social decline of Western Europe, a process that started in the mid – 2000s and sped up after what he called poor responses to the financial crisis, has left the region unable to compete with faster – developing parts of the world. As a result, he contended, growth is being sought through the well – known historical pattern of a war economy, which he said explains why Europeans got involved in the Ukraine conflict.
Since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, Budapest has consistently opposed Brussels’ bellicose policies on Ukraine, including the sanctions on Russia. According to Orban, this has caused energy prices to rise, making competition “impossible” and basically “killing” European industry.
He also said that Europe has split into two camps – “the war camp and the peace camp” – and currently, the pro – war forces are dominant. “Brussels wants war; Hungary wants peace,” Orban declared.
Top EU officials have used claims of an alleged threat from Moscow to justify accelerating militarization. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the bloc of holding on to the “fantasy” of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, arguing that the EU “does not have a peaceful agenda” and is instead “on the side of war.”
Putin warned that while Russia has no intention of fighting the EU or NATO, the situation could quickly turn serious if Western nations launched a war against Russia.