Poland and Hungary seem to be blocking the agreement on the EU budget – two countries governed by parties that do nothing but continually undermine core EU values. So my question is this; why is the EU largely turning a blind eye to such actions when they undermine the European project as a whole? In my personal opinion membership structure must change to ensure members states by-and-large follow the same value base in terms of governance principles for it to be meaningful otherwise the EU will have much less to stand for and even less in terms of influence while threatening the union itself – times have changed if you haven’t noticed. In other words there should be consequences for governments of member states intent on undermining the EU either deliberately or when their value base is no longer compatible with that of the EU by either suspending membership for a period or ejecting from the organization altogether. For liberal values/traditions to survive in this day/age they need to be represented by firm leaders ready/willing and able to take effective action protect them; the gentillesse approach is not sustainable/effective in certain scenarios and this is surely one of them particularly when it comes to long-term interest.
Well, that’s my opinion anyway.