Set conditions for EU help for Hungary

The EU Commission will discuss financial aid for Hungary today, Wednesday, in Copenhagen. The EU should only help the highly indebted country if the right-wing conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán retracts his anti-democratic new laws, the left-liberal daily Der Standard demands: "The EU has so far lacked the means to take action against a country where the government begins to undermine democracy. These are the after-effects of the so-called sanctions against the black-blue [conservative-right-wing populist] government in Austria. It also failed to take action against Italy's Silvio Berlusconi. However the EU is not just an economic union but also a community of values. It is a European issue when fundamental rights and common values are under threat in a member state. So the message should be: economic aid only if Hungary observes EU laws and the rules of democracy. Or in other words the retraction of the contentious laws as a pre-requisite for a cash injection from the Community."

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Who's saying what » Resistance to Hungarian government

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