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00:00The EU has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine from Hungary's budget

00:06after Budapest missed a second deadline.

00:10Austrian minister who is named for the migration portfolio in the EU created some controversy

00:15in Brussels.

00:16It seems Magnus Brunner won't have an easy path to the European Commission.

00:21The choice of the Italian Raffaele Fitto as one of the six executive vice presidents of

00:26the next European Commission wasn't appreciated by most of the political groups that backed

00:30Ursula von der Leyen.

00:34Socialist liberals and greens don't like having a vice president coming from the group of

00:39European conservative and reformists that they consider as far-right.

00:44With respect to the vice-presidency of ICR, President von der Leyen knew perfectly well

00:54our position against it.

00:56In any case, now the work begins, the hearings process, and throughout this process we will

01:01have to evaluate the capacity, knowledge and European commitment of each and every commissioner,

01:07also of the Italian commissioner, and finally we will take a final position regarding it.

01:13The position of the Minister in the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni will

01:16be strictly analysed by the Parliament before getting the green light.

01:19The opposing groups must decide whether accepting his post is a viable way to manage the rising

01:23pressure from the far-right, or if rejecting him now could lead to even greater pressure

01:27in the future.

01:28With the Group Renew, we have already warned about Ursula von der Leyen's political choice.

01:33She confirmed it.

01:34We are taking action on it.

01:36From now on, there will be auditions and our demands will be real towards Mr. Fitto.

01:40We will examine the candidates on the basis of competence, pro-European commitment and

01:46independence towards the Member States.

02:11Also, as far as I know, he doesn't know anything on animal health, on animal welfare and on health,

02:17so in that sense also there are concerns.

02:19And of course on migration, having an Austrian conservative on migration also is a big concern for us.

02:26Each commissioner needs the approval of at least two-thirds of the competent European

02:30Parliament's committee to be approved.

02:34For some of them, it won't be an easy task.

02:41The European Commission has rebuffed the Dutch government's recent request to secure an opt-out

02:49clause from the EU's migration and asylum rules.

02:52A commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels it had received the Hague's letter,

02:58penned by the Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration, and that there were no plans currently

03:03to provide the exemption.

03:06There's no treaty change upcoming, therefore this is the current situation.

03:12We have also taken and welcomed the fact that the minister has said that they will continue

03:18to prioritise the implementation of the pact, which is clearly a priority for the commission.

03:24Marjolein Faber, the Dutch politician in charge of asylum and migration, wrote the government

03:30wanted to drastically reduce the volume of migrants to the Netherlands to deliver better

03:35social services.

03:37However, the member of the far-right ultranationalist party conceded in the communique that if their

03:42request fell on deaf ears, the Hague would continue to uphold the EU's migration rules.

03:52Trust and participation in elections all over the world is declining for eight years in a row.

03:58Something that is also happening in Europe, as the Global State of Democracy report states.

04:03For Europe, polarisation in politics is one of the issues, says Sam van der Staak, the director

04:10of International Ideas Europe programme.

04:13It's countries that have been in the news, but also a lot of countries that as an outsider

04:18you wouldn't suspect. Countries like Greece and Bulgaria and Spain and Portugal and the

04:24Netherlands and outside the EU, the United Kingdom, they're still very healthy functioning

04:30democracies, but you see that in parts of the system things are cracking.

04:35And that's often because the politics is really putting a lot of pressure on how democracy

04:39functions. There's more polarisation, there's more pressure from political parties to say

04:46things need to change, and of course there's a lot of citizens that are dissatisfied by

04:51the way that democracy is delivering on their everyday concerns.

04:54But not everything is bad news in Europe. For van der Staak, the improvement in central

04:59and eastern European countries is closing the divide between old, established democracies

05:04and newer ones, helping Europe come together.

05:07The State of Democracy report identifies, however, two main causes to explain why politics

05:11loses credibility.

05:13We've seen it in countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, all across Europe

05:21there's been votes for the extremes that after the election stay out of power and people

05:26then wonder why go and vote at all.

05:28There's also the pressure from outside. So we see that there's forces such as Russia

05:34but also other authoritarian powers that try to abuse this weakness that we're seeing

05:41to stir even more dissatisfaction. So there's a pressure from outside through disinformation,

05:47through cyber attacks on elections, through foreign funding.

05:52For van der Staak, elections worldwide are a source of concern, with 10% lower participation

05:58than 15 years ago, and with 20% of recent years' elections where the losing candidate

06:04does not accept the outcome.

06:06The European Union has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine from

06:17Hungary's share of the EU budget after Budapest missed the payment deadline for a second time.

06:23Hungary was fined by the EU's top court for breaking the bloc's migration rules by depriving

06:30migrants of their right to apply for asylum.

06:33When it comes to the 200 million euro fine, the 15 day deadline expired yesterday. That

06:40means that the commission is in accordance with the applicable rules moving to what we

06:45call the offsetting procedure. So what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million

06:52euro from upcoming payments from the EU budget towards Hungary.

06:57The court has also imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day that

07:02Hungary fails to comply.

07:05In response to the fines, Hungary has threatened to send migrants from its southern border

07:10to the EU's headquarters in Brussels.

07:15It's also threatened to sue the EU executive to reimburse the cost of protecting the bloc's

07:20external border, which the government says has cost roughly 2 billion euros.

07:28Both of the Italian and French defence ministers attended the second day of the European Air

07:35and Missile Defence Conference that took place in the Italian capital. The debate over how

07:40to better protect European skies against the Russian threats touched on the military, industrial

07:46and political aspects and the presence of around 200 military and business leaders.

07:51Russia's war in Ukraine has sped up the need to strengthen the defence system across the

07:55continent. Along with that, questions have been raised on how to support the European

07:59arms industry. But, as Italy's defence minister Crosetto says, it's a race against time.

08:05Ensuring the self-reliance of the European defence sector is one of the priorities.

08:26Building a dialogue among key players and connecting them is crucial, and it was one

08:31of the aims of the conference.

08:55Another conference has already been announced for next year, but the debate is set to continue

09:18within European institutions. The EU has just named its first defence commissioner, bolstering

09:24European defence and security is in fact at the heart of the next EU Commission's agenda.

09:29Giorgio Arlandi for Euronews in Rome.

09:41Magnus Brunner won't have an easy path to be part of the European Commission. The current

09:46Austrian finance minister was chosen by Ursula von der Leyen to deal with internal affairs

09:51and the migration portfolio. But his profile and Vienna's hard line on border controls

09:56are a source of worries for many in the European Parliament.

09:59First of all, everybody was extremely surprised because his portfolio as finance minister,

10:05expert on energy and so on, never he showed up in the topic of migration with some specific

10:10knowledge or engagement. Secondly, also the Austrian government made some very non-constructive

10:19moves in the last years. They were not very helpful for the migration pact. They made

10:25a veto on the Schengen enlargement for Romania and Bulgaria, which everybody is saying is

10:31extremely counterproductive.

10:33Manfred Weber, president of Brunner's European People's Party, on the other hand, defends

10:39this pick.

10:41Also extremely important issue is to win back control of our borders. To stop illegal migration

10:47in Europe is a key demand and that's why good to have EPP there in the lead.

10:52For sure, the hearing that Brunner will have to face in the European Parliament is going

10:56to be a hard one. Socialists, liberals and greens will push against a migration policy

11:02focused only on strengthening borders and making deals with third parties to take migrants

11:06back. Austria has even called for EU funds to be used for fences.

11:11But what should never ever happen is the undermining of our fundamental values and

11:18human rights. That's at the core and should always be at the core of any migration policy

11:24and any border policy.

11:26Austrians are electing a new parliament on 29th of September, with far-right party FPÖ

11:32leading the polls. Which means that if Brunner is finally rejected, the next migration commissioner

11:39could come from a different government.

Latest news bulletin | September 18th – Evening

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