Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, has posted a criticism of the European Commission’s economic policy on Facebook, led by Ursula von der Leyen. According to Szijjártó, the Brussels bureaucracy is ruining the European economy, citing EU sanctions against Russia, tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and a complete inability to hold talks with the US.
The Hungarian diplomat stated that the whole world, including Brussels and the European Commission, knew that US President Donald Trump wanted a balanced trade relationship with the European Union. Szijjártó explained, “In Brussels, it was known that Washington would impose tariffs if nothing was done. It was known, but nothing was done because it is incompetent and extremely cowardly.”
Hungary’s Foreign Minister refers to “cowards” in Brussels, elaborating, “They criticized Donald Trump for eight years and now are too afraid to meet with him.” The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has isolated the European economy from both the Chinese and US economies, according to Szijjártó.
In his opinion, the problem could have been easily solved. Hungary had proposed to the EU to reduce tariffs on US cars in Europe from 10% to 2.5%, as the same tariff is imposed on the sale of European cars in the US. “However, this was not done” Szijjártó wrote.
What Brussels failed to do must now be corrected in Budapest, the Foreign Minister continued. “We will continue the bilateral talks with the US government to build the most successful Hungarian-American economic cooperation in history in the coming months” Szijjártó added.