Orbán set for showdown with EPP leaders

‘We will ask Orbán to execute the European Commission recommendations,’ says European People’s Party spokesman Siegfried Mureșan.

Senior European conservatives will on Saturday morning tell Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that he will face sanctions if he doesn’t heed Brussels’ warnings about violations of EU rules.

The European Commission this week stepped up the pressure on Orbán over his crackdown on the George Soros-funded Central European University, giving Budapest one month to make the case that a controversial education bill does comply with EU law or face a fast-tracked court case.

“We will ask Orbán to execute the European Commission recommendations,” European People’s Party spokesman and MEP Siegfried Mureșan told POLITICO. “If he doesn’t, sanctions will be on the table.”

“The EPP will support the Commission,” Mureșan added.

Mureșan said Orban had agreed to attend an EPP presidency meeting on Saturday, ahead of a European leaders summit on Brexit. The closed-door morning meeting will feature leading members of the EPP, including Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Parliament President Antonio Tajani and EPP President Joseph Daul.

A spokesperson for Juncker confirmed that the Commission president would attend the meeting.

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Mureșan said this would be the first chance for the EPP leadership to meet since Orbán passed the education bill, which critics say unfairly targets Central European University and is an attack on academic independence.

A growing number of EPP members have called on the political group to exclude Orbán’s Fidesz party after a series of moves seen as running contrary to EU values.

Other breaches include erecting border fences to keep out against migrants, refusing to take part in the EU’e refugee relocation scheme, launching an anti-EU campaign called Stop Brussels!, and passing a law targeting NGOs that receive foreign funding.