Less than two weeks after his previous article entitled "Europe must stand up to Hungary and Poland", Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros published another one suggesting that the European Union could circumvent the two countries' veto by individual member states or a group of them issuing perpetual bonds.
"I have written a lot in the past about the desirability of the European Union issuing perpetual bonds," Soros says in the article. "But today I am proposing that individual member states should do so."
The article, entitled "An effective response to Europe's fiscal paralysis" was published, just like the previous one, on opinion and commentary site Project Syndicate, partly financed by Soros' Open Society Foundation. It begins with describing the current deadlock, in which Hungary and Poland have threatened to jointly veto the €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund and the EU's €1.1 trillion seven-year budget should those be linked to the fulfillment of rule-of-law criteria.
Unlike in the previous article, which was primarily aimed at Hungary and Poland, this one also contains a stab at the so-called "Frugal Five" nations for putting their own interests ahead of what Soros believes is the common good.
"Right now, it would be impossible for the EU to issue perpetual bonds, because the member states are too divided," Soros writes. "Poland and Hungary have vetoed the next EU budget and the COVID-19 recovery fund, and the so-called Frugal Five (Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden) are more interested in saving money than in contributing to the common good."
Soros does, however, pretty much repeat his diatribe against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saying that "Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is concerned that the EU’s new rule-of-law provision would impose practical limits on his personal and political corruption. He is so worried that he has concluded a binding cooperation agreement with Poland, dragging that country down with him."
Following Soros' last article, Orbán responded with his own piece, stating that Soros was an "economic criminal" who grew rich speculating in other countries and crashing their financial systems. He further wrote that "the Soros network, which has woven itself through Europe’s bureaucracy and its political elite, has for years been working to make Europe an immigrant continent... Today the Soros network, which promotes a global open society and seeks to abolish national frameworks, is the greatest threat faced by the states of the European Union."
The article then explains in detail the concept of perpetual bonds — where only the interest must be paid in perpetuity, but the principal loan itself not. He writes that the Lisbon Treaty — the fundamental document of the European Union — does allow for individual member states or a group of states to issue such bonds and it should be to the liking of the Frugal Five.
The problem with his proposal is that the biggest single recipient of the coronavirus recovery fund, Italy, is unable to take out such a loan on its own. Soros suggests that "it would be a wonderful gesture of solidarity if the countries that sell perpetual bonds in their own name would also guarantee an issue by Italy. This would strengthen the EU and thus benefit them indirectly."
The idea of perpetual bonds was previously also suggested by France and quickly taken up by the Netherlands. But this would not solve the issue of the seven-year budget, nor is it likely to gain substantial support from Germany, both because it would undermine European unity and put the biggest financial strain on Germany.
In his response to Soros' previous article, which was refused by Project Syndicate, Orbán asked Europe to recognize that Soros asks for that which benefits him and his goals for Europe.
"During all these crises, this speculator — who calls himself a philanthropist — did not consider the interests of the people of Europe, but acted to his own advantage," Orbán wrote.
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The EU economically poisoning it's own member states? How can anybody claim this man isn't subversive when he's attempting to undermine Western nations who want to follow their own path and may not be down with transgenderism.
