Fidesz MEP: European left puts ‘political campaign against Hungary’ above Europeans’ future

In a statement, Gyori said the Socialist head of the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON), Aurore Lulacq, was staying away from an upcoming meeting on the EU’s economy because it is being held in Budapest.

Gyori said that in a letter she has written to MEPs, she said Lalucq had bypassed her fellow MEPs when making her decision not to attend the Budapest meeting, and as a result the EP will not be represented. Gyori said the scheduled ECOFIN session in Budapest would be a high-level meeting with issues impacting the lives of the European people on the agenda, such as the need to improve the European Union’s competitiveness.

She criticised Hungary’s leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) for encouraging a boycott of a meeting in Hungary while ignoring the interests of the Hungarian people.

Gyori noted that both the ECOFIN council and the Eurogroup will be meeting in Budapest on Sept 13-14. She said the EP had fought for years to ensure that the head of the ECON committee could be present at these meetings, but Lalucq was now depriving the body of this right.

She said this was “no surprise”, arguing that DK MEP Klara Dobrev had announced a boycott of the events organised during the Hungarian EU presidency and had encouraged her fellow Socialist MEPs to join. Gyori said Lalucq was putting her political affiliation above addressing the economic situation in the bloc that was making life more difficult for Europeans.

She said Lalucq owed her fellow MEPs and voters an explanation for why she was not doing her job.