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Increasing call to reduce Hungarian MEPs by 30%
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There is an increasing concern amongst commentators and analysts in the European Union about the antics of the Hungarian government. This has lead to many meetings and, more recently, calls for a reduction, across the board, of the number of Members of the European Parliament which will be given to Hungary. The Hungarian case seems to have sparked off a push for a fairer and more representative distribution of MEP numbers on the part of larger EU countries. At the moment Hungary has some 24 MEP slots, seven more than they would be entitled to if MEPs were distributed evenly across the EU population. If MEPs were evenly distributed, Germany, for example would get another 54 MEPs, the UK and France 16 more each and Italy 14. The Dutch, as a small country, pay a very high price in having given away 7 MEPs to other countries like Hungary.
External Issues
Short-termism and dollar diplomacy
One of the extremely serious issues which gave rise to these doubts was the ease with which Hungary recently jumped at the chance to take advantage of US cash diplomacy. Many analysts see this as a typical example of the short term vision of Hungarian politicians, and in particular the leadership. It is this sort of leadership which has progressively reduced the size of Hungary to 30% of its former self. Europeans work to create some form of solidarity out of the post-war mess. The United States, in recent times, has paid lip service to a European union, but whenever it has suited its short term tactics, it has shown little respect for this policy. More recently, the USA has pursued a more active policy of strategic disaggregation in Europe. Hungarian politicians have been just too keen to grab at these dollar initiatives. But Hungarian politicians, many are now saying, need to be reminded that one reason for the current reduced power base of Hungary was the Trianon treaty at the end of the first World War. They need to focus on the fact that at the time of negotiation, the United States had an over-bearing influence. However, at the crucial point when Hungary most needed support the USA walked away from the Trianon affair and did not even sign it. The USA did nothing to prevent the break up of Hungary, when it could have done.
Similarly, now the USA will do little if the Hungarian MEP numbers are reduced from some 24 to 17; a sort of mini-Trianon.
The Hungarian leadership actually missed the point entirely in its condescending remarks to the French President and indeed their attitude towards Germany. Hungary, it should be remembered, only has its extra MEP slots as a result of the generosity of these, and other countries. Hungarian politicians have failed to adjust to the fact that they are entering a democratic political regime. They need to take account of the fact that they need to become more accountable. This debate has moved from political elites and Brussels into the public domain and members of the public are beginning to ask why the EU is so generous to countries who give nothing in return. People are saying, "OK, if that is the state of loyalty of the Hungarian government, let their representation, and therefore power, in Brussels reflect the real size of that country; this being less than a quarter of 1% (<0.25%) of the population of Europe. So when the Hungarians begin to realise they have absolutely no say in what goes on in Brussels they can thank the current members of their government".
Internal Issues
Ongoing, degrading neo-Nazi policies which break European and International laws
The other aspect of Hungarian government policy which others find shocking, is the ongoing failure to break with the past in the application of neo-Nazi policies. The issue in question is the government's degrading treatment of Roma children in rural regions. The Hungarian government, for some time now, has applied a financial incentive which encourages rural local authorities to force normal Roma children into what are called special schools. These schools make up a rural gulag and are modeled directly on the Nazi special schools used under Hitler for Jewish and Roma children. The characteristics of the Nazi special schools were that:
- they made a lot of money for those who ran them
- they segregated minority children from the mainstream children
- the children received no useful education
" The Nazi special schools ... made a lot of money for those who ran them... "
The Hungarian government provides local authorities with more than Euro 1,750 each year for each Roma child forced into a special school or stream. In 2003 the number of Roma children in special schools exceeded 50,000 which represents a more than 400% increase since the fall of Communism. This is an annual budget of around Euro 100 million or Euro 1 billion over the last decade.
So a small rural village in Hungary with a population of school age Roma children of 120 will have an annual income of Euro 200,000 in a location where the head master or mistress earns Euro 5,000 each year. This is equivalent to Euro 2 million in a decade. In villages which take this amount of money there might be a total population of 2,000 people. No one can really explain where the money goes but, everyone knows that this money is not spent on anything which helps these children in any way.
Officials have tried to explain away this abuse by stating that this is what is known as normative financing and such funds can be spent on anything. But the system is based on cruel official fraud, just as in the Nazi system. The Nazi fraud was to state that minorities were inferior and therefore could not benefit from normal treatment or education. The Hungarian government maintains exactly the same fraud. In order to "officialize" or "legitimize" this fraud they employ psychologists to "classify" the children; this tidies up the "paperwork". Some local authority officials admit that they provide the psychologists with the statistics on the numbers of Roma children reaching school age. The psychologists simply end up with that same number classified as being in need of "special schooling". Sometimes, because the psychologists can't tell if a child is Roma, some Romungro are blond, they need to ask extra questions or receive help from the local teacher who knows the families. Sometimes the process is so crude, the justification written in the questionnaire is "Cigany", which means Roma. So this socially damaging fraud of denying Roma children an education is what "justifies" a substantial part of the central government budget paid out to rural local authorities. Once the funds have been sent, the Roma children are forgotten about and, as "..according to the law", the funds are spent on anything the local authority wants.
" The Nazi special schools . . segregated minority children from the mainstream children .."
In some rural villages in Hungary, 100% of the Roma children are in special schools. This system is an effective and cruel means of segregation.
" In the Nazi special schools . . the children received no useful education.."
The children who pass through the special schools receive no useful education. They therefore languish and lose incentive and end up achieving little. The teachers do next to nothing to change this situation in spite of the massive funds flowing to local authorities in the name of special schools. As a result Roma children do not receive school diplomas and this bars them from any professional, even manual, training and such things as running shops or small businesses where a school diploma is required. These details end up "legalizing" constraints on the scope of economic activities of the Roma, just as in Nazi Germany, and these constraints apply throughout the life of each Roma.
The special schools have been in operation for over 50 years, as have other forms of schooling where Roma have been schooled under deficient circumstances and without resources. This has impacted all current generations of Roma.
Official reactions
European officials are coming under pressure from NGOs and members of their constituencies in the Union where a widespread Campaign to Close the Special Schools is beginning to bite. In closed meetings it has been alleged that the Hungarian authorities are always "promising" to do something but never have. Even now the Prime Minister of Hungary chairs a Roma action group but observers admit that this seems to be for "show only" to get them through the pre-accession stage. "The Hungarians are masters at cabaret," stated one Brussels official, off the record, "they even have token Roma sprinkled around Ministries to show off to visitors".
Even this year, less than a year from accession, this macabre and grotesque cynicism continues. A promise to "change" the situation of special schools has resulted in nothing. In fact in some villages the numbers of Roma children sent to special schools increased this September, 2003.
Clearly Hungary, for some time now, has lacked effective and humane leaders. The politicians are more interested in benefiting from dollar diplomacy or fraudulent classifications, which deny children education, but generate cash for the political class and their hangers on. Such politicians do not really care about people, Europe or anything else. They care about themselves. Some even admit that politics is a matter of personal status and gaining a decent income. It has nothing to do with representation or democracy. They certainly have no respect for European law, for the special schools are illegal under European law. They break their own laws for all children have a right to a basic education. These neo-Nazis have a brazen disregard for basic decency and no respect for individuals.
Several MPs from France and Germany were asked about this issue. They were shocked to hear about these details of Hungarian governance. Although not immediately stating that the Hungarians should lose these extra MEP slots, they admitted this was certainly something which should be looked at. Indeed, it would be an easy one for them to push in the name of "equitable representation" and, at the same time get back a large number of MEPs for their own countries.
On the other hand, several made the point that the current draft of the European Constitution states that MEP representation should be in proportion to population numbers and most large countries agree with this. So irrespective of the antics of the Hungarian government the likely trend is towards a fairer distribution (A good review on this issue can be seen in Ireland Review's Freedom Section:"How many Members of the European Parliament should each country have?").
Hungarian observers, whilst not denying that there are "problems" associated with the special schools, were quite emphatic that the same situation exists in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, so it isn't just Hungary which is way out of line with current European law.