The Brief – Huawei is not the issue
Source: Euractiv
Brussels was all atwitter at the end of its work week (read Thursday) on news that Huawei, the Chinese purveyor of telecom networks, was suspected of paying bribes to more than a dozen MEPs.
The reaction was predictable: feigned shock, calls for swift action and plenty of righteous finger-wagging from the media.
The scandal was such an effective diversion that one could be forgiven for thinking that Viktor Orbán was behind the whole thing.
For while the press corps was churning out breathless reports about sealed offices and “blue and white police tape on doors of European Parliament offices,” the real steal was happening behind closed doors elsewhere in Brussels, far beyond the jurisdiction of the gendarmes.
Not for the first time – and likely not for the the last – Orbán managed to hold Europe hostage with his veto on renewing sanctions against thousands of Russians and entities for another six months.
As usual, EU ambassadors buckled and agreed to de-list several people on the Hungarian leader’s wish list, including several oligarchs and their close relatives.
To be fair to the ambassadors, they had no choice. If they hadn’t cut a deal, sanctions on thousands of Putin cronies and their corporate vehicles would have expired this weekend, freeing up billions in frozen assets.
It is of little surprise then, that they sought to present the deal as a defeat for Orbán, with one diplomat telling Euractiv: “The trade-off speaks for itself.”
It does indeed, just not in the way the diplomat thinks.
More than anything, the episode illustrates how easy it is to play the EU.
At a time when Brussels should be applying maximum pressure on Moscow, the continent’s leaders have once again allowed themselves to be manipulated by Europe’s slickest operator, whose true motives they themselves don’t fully understand.
But rest assured: The sums involved here are vastly greater than the cost of a few luxury trips to China, tickets to football matches, and whatever other goodies Huawei is alleged to have spent on MEPs.
To be clear, corruption should be rooted out and prosecuted wherever it occurs.
Yet we also shouldn’t be naive. The big steal is happening right beneath our noses. If authorities really wanted to ‘follow the money’, they’d be en route to Budapest.
Roundup
Sanctions – Hungary on Friday lifted its objection to the EU’s renewal of sanctions on Russian individuals and entities after several names were taken off the list.
Energy – Europe’s strict hydrogen production rules create regulatory barriers to the market ramp-up of the clean-burning gas, four EU countries argue.
Health – Life expectancy in the European Union reached 81.4 years in 2023, the highest value ever recorded by Eurostat.
Agriculture – EU ambassadors on Friday greenlit a proposal for higher tariffs on Russian fertilisers and a further increase in tariffs on agri-food products from Russia and Belarus as well, with hopes of approval by the summer.
Across Europe
Germany – Germany’s two main centrist parties struck a deal with the Greens on Friday to pass a massive infrastructure and defence spending package that marks a major turning point in the country’s normally cautious fiscal policy.
Greece – Greek centre-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided today to reshuffle the cabinet as his New Democracy party’s free fall in polls continues.
The original article: belongs to Euractiv .
