Any changes to the basic treaties governing the functioning of the European Union can only be addressed after the 2014 European parliamentary elections, Foreign Minister János Martonyi said in Brussels November 28, 2012.

After attending a conference on the EU’s future the Minister said that he agreed with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council that the legitimation of the 2014 elections was necessary in order to start the long and complex procedure of amending basic treaties. He stated that until then, focus should be on more urgent tasks, such as stabilizing the Eurozone and the whole European integration process.

He stressed that tools available must be utilized in areas of fiscal discipline and in allowing Member States more flexibility. “Some of the tools Member States will have to choose themselves for tackling their economic problems,” he said, adding that if some members want to move faster on certain issues, for instance introducing a financial transactions tax, they should be allowed to do so, by referring to the procedure of enhanced cooperation.

Minister Martonyi said that President Van Rompuy had mentioned four building blocks in his address: a unified financial framework and budgetary framework, a unified economic policy framework, and a political union. The latter, the Minister said, was nothing but political, democratic legitimation, and accountability. Some of the elements of the first block, the banking union, can be tackled under the current treaties. But to create a fiscal and economic union, treaties must be amended if member states want to transfer more powers to EU institutions, he said.

Minister Martonyi added that it was also agreed at the conference that the joint external and security policies, though some progressed over the past 2-3 years, are still far from being real unified policies. Synergies should be tapped on much more in a common commercial policy, development policy, energy policy, external, security and defence policies, he stated.

Regarding last week’s EU summit, where member states failed to agree on the 2014-2020 budget Minister Martonyi said delegates were not pessimistic, as it was stated that members were not too far from an agreement. However, he added that there are countries like Hungary for whom the current budget proposal is unacceptable.

(MTI, MFA)