French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned eastern EU members not to fall out of step with the bloc’s principles, singling out Hungary and Poland, whose governments have clashed with Brussels, AFP said.
In an interview published in Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak media, the French president insisted that “Europe is not a supermarket.”
He said earlier that eastern states could not pick and choose among the EU’s fundamental values. Seven months ahead of elections to the European Parliament, Macron said he expected the campaign ahead of the vote to be a duel between “progressives” and nationalists.
Macron, who kicks off a two-day visit to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, also expressed concern about the refusal of some eastern EU members to accept migrants from the Middle East and North Africa under an EU quota program.
“We cannot benefit from the European budget without demonstrating solidarity on migration,” Macron said.