EU Double Standards

Rossz időket érünk,
Rossz csillagok járnak:
Isten ója nagy csapástól
Mi Magyar hazánkat!


We are living in hard times,
Above us bad stars stand:
God save us from disaster
Our Hungarian land!

On 14 March, the day before the celebration of the 1848 Hungarian revolution, the EU announced that it had suspended funding for Hungary over it’s high budget deficit.  The EU has given a target of a 3% deficit to member states, and while Spain will receive continued funding with a deficit of 5.3%, and the Netherlands too, with a deficit of 4.5%, Hungary will have to reduce it’s deficit without EU support, despite running a deficit on the 3% target.

The official reason for these funding cuts is the ‘high’ budget deficit, with Hungary’s 2013 deficit expected to rise to 3.6%,, mainly due to lower tax receipts and high interest payments on rollover debt.  The lower tax receipts are expected due to lower growth expectations, while the EU has suggested that the decision would be revisited in 3 months, if Hungary passes more budget cuts.

Yet the reason for this predicted worsening of Hungary's budget deficit can be blamed, at least partly, on the lack of the IMF standby loan leaving investors with a lack of faith in the Forint.  Orbán's government received criticism for the passing of a law meaning homeless people could be fined if found on the streets of Budapest.  Yet it seems the EU are following this same stupid law on a much larger scale.

Hungary is being beaten into submission over its refusal to make more budget cuts.  And they are right to do so, as many public sector workers couldn't live on any less, with some already earning just 78,000 Ft, or €265 per month.

It seems that the EU is being influenced from elsewhere.  Austerity measures lead to one thing only: more profits for big corporations.  With government cuts making some services unfundable, corporate business will take over the reigns.  The EU is revealing its true face with it's treatment of Hungary.  Other central European countries have come out on Hungary's side recently, with many Poles at the celebrations yesterday, while Austria has publicly accused the EU of double standards over its treatment of Hungary.

As Arany János said, "Above us bad stars stand".  He may have been talking about 1848, but it has as much relevance now as it did then.