Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sharply criticised the European Commission’s proposed budget, warning it could lead to the EU’s collapse.
The European Commission's proposed new budget lacks clear strategic foundations and would ruin the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.
"This budget would ruin the European Union. This budget I believe will not survive even next year, the Commission will either have to withdraw it or the Commission will have to backtrack step by step," Orban said, criticising plans to allocate money to Ukraine and planned changes to farm subsidies.
His comment comes after the European Commission proposed a 2 trillion euro ($2.31 trillion) EU budget for 2028 to 2034 on Wednesday (16 July), with a new emphasis on economic competitiveness and defence and plans to overhaul traditional spending on farming and regional development.
"It is a budget that matches Europe's ambition, that confronts Europe's challenges and that strengthens our independence," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.
She added that, "The budget is larger. It is smarter and it is sharper. It delivers for our citizens and our business, our partners and our future."
The Commission said its proposal amounted to 1.26% of the 27-nation European Union's Gross National Income - a measure of the size of the economy - compared to 1.13% for the current seven-year budget.
But the Commission proposed several ways to raise more funds directly, including a new tax on companies doing business in Europe that have an annual net turnover exceeding 100 million euros in an EU country.
Some EU countries and lawmakers were quick to criticise the proposal.
"The EU is important for our prosperity, but the proposed budget is too high," Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen said.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "globalist bureaucrats" were plotting to "drain Europe’s money into Ukraine" while "our farmers are rising up to defend their future".
"The EU Commission’s budget proposal isn’t just unfair, it’s not even fit to be negotiated," he said on X.
Farmers held a protest in Brussels, with influential European farmers' lobby group COPA-COGECA calling the day European agriculture's "Black Wednesday".
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Lawyers warn that the case could eventually involve up to 1.8 million UK drivers across 14 brands, potentially making it the largest consumer class action in British legal history.
Official Tbilisi is aiming to establish a genuine and meaningful strategic partnership with Washington.
European stock markets opened the week on a positive note, buoyed by hopes of easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China and declining geopolitical risks in the Middle East.
The trilateral meeting between Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia aimed at strengthening economic and transport cooperation is considered a key platform for the region.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
The Gaza summit held on 13 October in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, is being hailed as a significant diplomatic milestone for securing peace in the region.
A nor’easter bringing heavy rain and strong winds has caused widespread flooding across New Jersey.
Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina postponed a planned national address on Monday after a group of soldiers threatened to seize the headquarters of the state broadcaster, according to the presidency.
The European Union’s next wave of eastward enlargement, particularly involving candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe, could prove decisive for Europe’s energy security and competitiveness.
Venezuela has closed its embassy in Oslo, Norway’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday, days after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
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