Editor's Note: A political scientist on a recent interview on Hungarian Echo TV, said that from 2004 to 2008, Hungary paid 30 milliárd (billion) worth of Euros net to the EU. In the same time period, Hungary only received 5 milliárd (billion) worth or Euros net funding from the EU. Is it really worth staying in an organization that dictates to your country and that you over pay for? It's high time to review whether the EU is really worth staying in...
According to a recent radio interview in Hungary, Prime Minister Orbán Viktor said that Hungary will consider it blackmail by the European Union if political conditions were attached to IMF talks. Currently, Hungary is in talks with the IMF (International Monetary Fund), to secure a desperately needed loan from the organization. Orbán told this to public radio MR1-Kossuth on Friday morning. He also added that this sort of action in the EU is totally unacceptable and that it would leave member states vulnerable, thus changing the nature of European integration completely.
The preconditions by the EU for the loan mean that Hungary would be considered for the loan purely on political considerations and not on economic ones. Orbán used the IMF loan examples of Belarus, Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Pakistan to support his position. These countries received IMF loans based purely on a financial basis and not a political one. He mentioned the fact that the political preconditions were a huge intrusion and that no EU member state would accept it. This is no surprise that the EU is doing this to Hungary. It is a known fact that there are some other EU member states that are in a worse economic situation than Hungary, yet are not being treated as badly. Equality amongst member states is but an illusion in the EU and this situation highlights this fact.
István
