widthThe ongoing battle between the European Commission on the one hand and Poland and Hungary on the other is tantamount to a European cultural war. From a formal point of view, it is about legal issues, about the compatibility of national laws and national laws. IBut all interested parties should be aware that disputes go deeper than the usual infringement procedures that Brussels routinely reviews the legislation of member states.
In the cases of these two countries, the European Union is caught in the whirlpool of huge ideological conflicts currently launched in many societies: authoritarianism and pluralism, ethnicity and plural culture. In other words, it boils down to details.
On a sloping track
How could an alliance once established for international understanding embark on this steep path? There are some political factors that are often overlooked.As far as Hungary is concerned, Orban recently received European People’s Party already left. He no longer has any formal allies in the governments of Western Europe, and he felt this especially true on the issue of gay rights at the most recent EU summit. The Polish PiS government is a partisan parliament on the committee, which may explain some of the defensive reactions on both sides.
However, more fundamentally, Western Europe and Eastern Europe have diverged in recent years. The eastward expansion of the European Union is related to the basic belief that the former Warsaw Pact countries will sooner or later join the liberal, conservative and social democracy.
Especially for some new big topics, you can see that it has not really been solved. Climate protection, immigration, women’s rights, diversity-all these issues that increasingly determine the political agenda of the West only affect the ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe.Not like that Pee Or Fidesz came to power in Warsaw or Budapest. They were even elected for promising to exclude these changes from their home countries.
There is only a junior European public
The EU’s political system is not undemocratic, but it cannot resolve fundamental value conflicts. In a country, you hold elections to clarify these issues in a reasonably satisfactory manner. But the EU does not even have a government that can enforce the will of the majority; at most, there is a basic European public that can debate.
This is why the dispute is ultimately handled by the committee, which, as the “guardian of the treaty,” turns political conflicts into legal issues. This is not satisfactory, but given the current contract situation, there is no choice.
Every Tuesday
The dispute still needs to be resolved, at least where it directly affects EU law. In the European Union, there is room for political characteristics among member states. But they are not complete sovereignty; this has been the basic principle of European unification from the beginning. Achievements such as the internal market and the common judicial field can only work if all member states comply with EU law.
Germans who want to do business in Poland need an independent judiciary. A Frenchman who has settled in Hungary must be able to believe that the government is not corrupt and will not be discriminated against because of his sexual orientation.
Critical stage
The fact that the dispute is now entering a decisive stage is that many people in Western Europe no longer see how to transfer billions of euros to Eastern Net recipients who do not want to follow the agreed rules of the game. This brings new advantages to the debate, but it is inevitable. The fact that local taxpayers fund those governments that openly pursue policies that oppose the EU and Germany is no longer reasonable.
Especially German politicians, even if not always the case (see Nord Stream 2), often see themselves as champions of the European Union and Eastern Europe. For economic and strategic reasons, this is basically correct. Upholding the rule of law is even more important, because the EU can only survive as a legal community.
It is difficult to say how this struggle will develop. For Orbán and Kaczynski, the political business model is at stake. On the other hand, many big nationalist spokespersons have already given way on the issue of money. Joining the European Union is still very popular in Poland and Hungary. In the best case, the committee’s tougher approach will lead (societies) to reflect on their positions and priorities in both countries. In the worst case, the withdrawal debate begins.
