Too little, too late for Mr. Orban

Too little, too late if you ask me.

To tolerate a disruptive behaviour for years and years, ignoring authoritarianism and right-wing excesses under some made-up Christian-conservatism, is the same as looking idly at extremism growing freely inside the very fabric of our leadership structure and in our societies.

And now that we have arrived here do we really think that Viktor Orban and Fidesz are in any way affected by the EPP’s decision to suspend his party? Or that they will suddenly be ashamed and change something in their political approach? Unfortunately, it is too late for that. We all know what’s going to happen from here.

Orban will intensify his rhetoric, and he will posture even more shamelessly as the self-styled last defender of Christianity.

In his own words sent to the EPP group, he is “attacked” in a moment when “hundreds of thousands of Europeans are hospitalised, and our doctors are saving lives” and the EPP decision is “undemocratic, unjust and unacceptable”.

Orban will continue to pump public money, national and European into his propaganda machine. He will continue to shout and put posters on motorways depicting himself as the defender of all Europe from immigrants, from the evil Soros, and from the incompetent politicians in Brussels, who spend their time tirelessly working out plans to harm the innocent people who voted for him.

Of course, he is the kind of leader with little regrets, and he will sacrifice anything and anybody, including his citizens, for his political gain.

Speaking of Soros, let’s ask him if he’s happy with supporting Orban in the early nineties. And more importantly, let’s ask ourselves if Hungary’s people deserve what’s coming to them. An isolated country ruled by an authoritarian leader who twists reality to match his particular interest. Orban is a political leader that will confuse the destiny of his country with his political survival.

The growing swell of anti-European strategists are working hard to find fractures in our political construction, and there is nothing more prominent and more explicit than Orban and Fidesz.

And the fact he was allowed to be part of EPP, throwing at him small and insignificant threats that he ignored repeatedly, was a real help for him to prosper and work on more fractures between us. He was the “bad boy,” the one who said it at it was, and because the costs were postponed continuously, he is now playing a martyr facing a wrongful conviction. Let’s face it! He used us and he used all the European crises to gain political advantage.

But it can be an excellent lesson for the future if we can understand the dangers behind [such] hesitation.

The price of this lesson is the future of democracy, nonetheless. We will continue to meet Orban at the European Council. His party is still in power and part of the European Parliament. He will seek alliances with the extremist forces from inside Europe and also abroad. It will be a nightmare.

But it’s a good reason to understand why we need a united Europe, without two speeds, with west and east, north and south, joining hands and sharing visions.

The too-much-delayed Conference on the Future of Europe is the opportune moment.

Maybe the design of its governance is not ideal. Still, we must go past that and focus on the content, use it to give voice to our citizens and pursue a union that emerges more resilient in the face of crisis, generates economic opportunity and growth, and is more prominent in this new multi-polar world.

The best joke on Orban is to turn him into an undercover agent of European integration.

_Dragoș Tudorache is a Romanian MEP. _

The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic and political turmoil have sharpened the challenges facing women as they demand equal rights, three of the world’s most influential female leaders warned Monday.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen addressed the European Parliament on International Women’s Day.

“Simply put, our world does not yet work for women as it should,” Harris, the first woman and the first American of African and Asian descent to serve as US vice-president, told MEPs.

“COVID-19 has threatened the health, the economic security, and the physical security of women everywhere,” she warned in a video address recorded in Washington.

Von der Leyen, the first woman to head the EU executive, touted her plans to insist on transparency and in hiring and salaries to incite European companies to close the gender pay gap. The women in Europe are paid 14 percent less than men and only 67 percent are in paid work, compared to 78 percent of men. “This is simply not acceptable,” she said.

“At the same time, women comprise 70 percent of the global health workforce, putting them on the front lines and at risk of contracting the virus,” Harris said.

The European Commission was “surprised” that Belgium extended a ban on non-essential travel to other European Union (EU) countries until mid-April, said a spokesperson on Monday.

Belgium announced on Friday the extension of its travel restriction measure, originally to be lifted on April 1, for another 17 days until April 18. The country, along with some other EU members, has forbidden its residents to travel abroad except for “imperative reasons” as a COVID-19 containment measure.

The European Commission deemed the measure contrary to EU law, which guarantees free movement for its residents and citizens within the Schengen area.

The EU executive sent letters to a number of countries implementing travel bans a fortnight ago, asking them to respect the “principle of proportionality” and to replace the travel ban with “more targeted measures,” said European Commission spokesperson for justice, equality and rule of law Christian Wigand.

As of Monday, the commission has received replies from Germany, Finland and Belgium. However, the answer from the Belgian authorities did not mention the new extension.

The commission will analyze the replies received from the relevant member states and will “quickly examine all options on the table,” said Wigand.

“Free movement is a fundamental freedom. We will continue to act to ensure that the recommendations adopted by the EU Council are respected and to avoid travel bans,” tweeted EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders on Monday.

BRUSSELS, March 8 (Xinhua) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday laid out the vision of turning Europe into a continent of equal opportunities for men and women.

“I know we are not there yet. I know that the playing field is not level yet,” she said at a European Parliament event marking the International Women’s Day. “I know from experience that women have to work twice as hard to get the same salary, the same recognition or the same leadership position as their male colleagues. I know the obstacles and the prejudices.”

She outlined the proposals presented by the European Commission last week to address what she described as “the two greatest injustices that women still face: the gender pay gap and the gender employment gap.”

She explained how women in Europe are paid on average 14 percent less than men, and why the Commission proposed the Directive for Pay Transparency.

The employment rate for women in Europe stands at 67 percent, while that for men is 78 percent. “This is simply not acceptable,” she said.

The second proposal aims to address this problem by targeting that 78 percent of all women must have a job by the end of the decade. She said childcare will be strengthened “because no women or men should have to choose between being a mother or father or having a career.”

Monday’s event also featured a video message from the United States Vice President Kamala Harris, who stressed how building a world that works for women was “not just an act of goodwill”, but a “show of strength.”

“If we build a world that works for women, our nations will all be safer, stronger and more prosperous,” she told members of the European Parliament.

She suggested initiatives such as ensuring women’s safety at home, access to high-quality health care, treating women with dignity at work and having the right mechanisms to enable women to both care for their families and excel in the workforce.

The future carbon border adjustment mechanism is part of the “new own resources” for the EU budget and must be used to “combat global warming” across the world, Green MEP Yannick Jadot said on Wednesday (3 March). EURACTIV France reports.

Jadot, a French Green MEP who is in charge of the European Parliament’s report on the EU’s upcoming carbon border charge, says the levy is “not a protectionist measure” to shield Europe’s industry from competition.

To ensure the upcoming border levy is compatible with World Trade Organisation rules, he insists that part of the revenue is allocated to finance low-carbon technologies in developing countries.

Jadot’s report will be presented to the European Parliament on Monday (8 March) and voted the following day.

Part of the revenue – “between €5 and €14 billion per year” – should go to the world’s most vulnerable countries, according to the Green MEP.

As of 2023, the carbon border adjustment mechanism intends to first cover carbon emissions from “energy-intensive steel, cement and aluminium industries, the power sector and the plastics, chemicals, and fertiliser industries,” Jadot said.

According to estimates, this would correspond to 94% of Europe’s industrial emissions.

How the EU decides to use the revenues generated from the levy will play a big part in its compatibility with international trade rules. In January, WTO deputy director general Alan Wolff suggested it “might be just fine” to redirect the revenues in support of the EU’s green policies – so-called recycling.

“Recycling for general environmental purposes – not for a particular sector, not directly changing the competitive environment internationally – might be just fine,” said Wolff, adding that it was “of course no problem” if those duties “go back into general revenues to support the EU in general”.

The WTO deputy director general did, however, warn that “if they come back and change the competitive equation for a particular industry or companies,” this would probably create “quite a lot of conflict.”

This fear is shared by Pascal Canfin, a French MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s environment committee. Back in December, he said that If the proceeds only go towards the EU recovery plan, “without traceability, with no environmental objectives and without any returns to certain countries, especially the poorest, I think we have to be concerned.”

“WTO compatibility is a total red line,” he added.

A number of developing countries in Africa and elsewhere have expressed concern that they will be liable to pay the levy despite having far lower carbon emissions than the EU.

But while the exact amount has not yet been fixed, Jadot said it was already clear that developing countries will benefit from a share of the revenue, in what he called a “historic position of the European parliament”.

Meanwhile, other parts of the revenue should be used to repay Europe’s public debt and the loans linked to the EU recovery plan, even if “it would be primarily to finance the green part of the recovery plan”, Canfin added.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon and Benjamin Fox]