For years, European institutions have promoted austerity policy and the EU was not in the habit of protesting when rating agencies threatened countries by tightening conditions for borrowing. Now Hungary is to be penalized for being economically responsible.
Hungary has been accused of breaching fundamental values of the EU and MEPs will vote today over triggering the sanction process, which may lead to the suspension of the country’s voting right in the European Council.
It is clear that some of the accusations are there only to serve a purpose. For example, Hungary has been accused of having a low basic income rate and low unemployment benefits. The hypocrisy is striking, not to mention that social policies should be decided by each member state.
Ironically, if Hungary would not be economically responsible, it would be threatened to end up like Greece. It seems so that by being economically responsible the country is only adding fuel to the fire.
The question is why the EU is not following the same procedures against every right-wing government, which is cutting the social security of employees and benefits for the unemployed.
