DISINFO: Poland and Hungary are likely to leave the EU, the western democracy is in crisis
SUMMARY
Poland and Hungary played a dirty trick at the EU summit by blocking the adoption of the EU budget for 2021-2027 and COVID-19 recovery package. Two countries are crashing the EU system with its own rules. The EU crisis is becoming clearer. Whereas the European Parliament and other EU bodies lack real power, anonymous Brussels bureaucrats are very powerful. Bigger EU members states pressure and blackmail others to reach consensus, this is how anti-Russian sanctions were endorsed.
Experts believe that the exit of Poland and Hungary out of the EU is very likely. Brussels and western European countries may also prefer this development to deal with ‘rebels’. The hardest blow will be inflicted on western democracy which is not functioning well.
RESPONSE
This publication is consistent with a common pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU's imminent collapse and about a dysfunctional EU governed by the bureaucrats who are out of touch with the needs of the people.
Poland and Hungary indeed blocked the adoption of the EU budget and coronavirus recovery package at the latest EU summit. This does not mean, however, that the two countries are about to leave the EU. The talks among the EU member states over the EU budget and COVID-19 recovery programme will continue.
Support for the EU, as shown in the 2019 Eurobarometer poll, remains very high in the EU countries. Asked if a referendum was held tomorrow regarding the country's membership of the EU, 9% of Polish people and 15% of Hungarians, would vote to leave the EU. The latest Eurobarometer survey "The EU and the coronavirus outbreak" also shows that a majority of respondents in Poland (68%) and Hungary (76%) trust the EU to make the right decisions in the future.
The publication also misrepresents the competences of the European Parliament. The European Commission cannot adopt new legislation or amend existing EU legislation without consent from the Council of the EU and the European Parliament. The European Parliament is directly elected by the EU’s population. It approves and removes the president of the European Commission. The European Parliament also has the power to censure the Commission with a vote of two-thirds of its members, thereby forcing the Commission to resign.
As EU co-operation evolved with time, the European Parliament progressed from a purely advisory role to one of co-decision on an equal footing with the Council. The Lisbon Treaty expanded the number of policies which are subject to the ordinary legislative procedure to virtually all areas including the areas of freedom, security and justice, external trade, environmental policy and the common agricultural policy.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that a number of EU countries teeter on the brink of default, the current socio-economic situation of Poland is worse than in the communist times, that the EU countries face 'total unemployment', and that Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France are in line to exit the EU.