Hungarian government accuses EU Commissioner of being "extremely ignorant or lying"

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has been mentioned as the potential nominee of the European People's Party for the post of Commission President when Jose Manuel Barroso steps down next year (of course, gaining the approval of EU leaders is another matter).

One national capital that won't be queueing up to endorse her is Budapest, following Reding's escalating row with the Hungarian government over the country's changes to its judicial system, which it has been claimed allow for too much political interference.

A bitter sub-plot in this argument has been the fate of Francis Tobin - an Irish national found responsible for a fatal road accident in Hungary in 2000 - whose extradition the Irish Courts have refused to sanction despite the issuing of a European Arrest Warrant. Reding seemingly backed the Irish position, claiming she was "not surprised" by the decision.

The latest chapter in this row has been sparked by comments Reding made during a visit to Bulgaria yesterday. We haven't been able to find the original source, but it appears she suggested the Hungarian Supreme Court had been dissolved. The Hungarian government's reaction did not pull any punches:

"These actions and lies of Viviane Reding cause great harm to the public image and reputation of the European Commission. Viviane Reding is either extremely ignorant, or she is lying out of political interests."  

"We call on her to make the data on which she has based her attack public, or failing that, to make an immediate apology."

Ouch!

row incoming

PA reports on new statistics from the Home Office, out this morning:

Nearly 8,000 Bulgarians and Romanians came to work in Britain in the first three months after their countries joined the EU, the Home Office said today.

A further 2,400 have joined the seasonal agricultural workers' scheme.

The figures did not provide a full picture of the numbers who have moved to the UK because no such records are kept by the Government.

The Government had initially said that the number of jobs for migrants from the A2 would be 20,000. The Home Office said that "Low-skilled migration from Bulgaria and Romania will be restricted to those sectors of the economy where the UK already has low-skilled schemes and will be subject to a strict quota which will not exceed 20,000 workers per year."

But later, after a run in with farmers, the Government reduced the cap to just 10,000. (See the Sunday Times and our blog from last October). But now it looks like we are already over that - with nine months to go.

Whether the "limit" was 10,000 or 20,000, it looks like the fantasy idea of "limiting" the number of jobs available without limiting free movement is about to collide with reality.

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As we've remarked before relations between Germany and Poland are a little strained at the moment. They're in the midst of a number of different rows at the moment which are likely to overshadow Angela Merkel's trip to Warsaw today.

So it probably hasn't helped that the Polish government "expert" on bilateral relations with Germany has attacked Merkel in the Berliner Zeitung for knowing "little about Poland". He wrote: "We are dealing with a country whose national policies are essentially egotistical and not exactly friendly towards Poland."

PS - for all those following the negotiations on the Constitution, the Kaczynski’s advisor on European issues Marek Cichocki has said that Poland will not accept attempts to bring back the voting weights that were in the Constitution. He wrote in a Polish newspaper editorial that: “Poland will never resign from the votes in the council given under the Nice voting system, because it is a fundamental instrument of real influence in the internal and external policies of the union."

The last time Poland tried to block the Constitution in 2003 it very quickly met with threats that a flow of subsidies would be cut off by large member states. Once again we seem to be heading for a head-on collision.

football

The "EU fiftieth birthday" match against Man U is in danger of turning into some sort of metaphor. The "Europe XI" team is a great reflection of the EU:

Beckham has pulled out citing injury / Far too expensive, and slightly past its best?

They have had to bring in three Brazilians to make it any good / Overtaken by globalisation and international competition...

Maybe the whole state of football is a reflection of the EU - how did something that everyone likes get hijacked and turned into a massive corporate enterprise remote from ordinary punters... (one controversy at a time please - Ed.)

UPDATE:

At the press conference yesterday Marcelo Lippi admitted that they struggled to find players to play in the EU team, and that high profile names such as Zinedine Zidane turned down the opportunity. "It was initially supposed to be a European team only, but there are players from other continents to now... so many people dropped out". Jose Barroso said "I think that it is very good that there are non-Europeans in the European team... I think football is a globalised activity now, it is something that was invented in Europe and we can be proud of it."

Bobby Charlton was asked whether he thought this is the first step to the UK joining the euro (cue chortling from Brussels journalists): "No I don't... but as far as being together in Europe I think what we're doing today is our contribution at the present time."