EXCLUSIVE: EU-US Forum hosts Jason Miller for foreign policy panel in Budapest: “We can’t take these rights for granted”
THE LOWDOWN:
The EU-US Forum, an organization that “exposes the threat of the extreme liberal agenda being peddled by the European Union and is working to reverse its harmful policies,” held a foreign policy panel in Budapest ahead of CPAC Hungary.
During the panel, EU-US Forum board member Matt Mowers and senior adviser Joseph Grogan hosted a conversation with conservative communications legend Jason Miller where the trio discussed the economic and political relationship between America and the EU.
Mowers referenced Vice President JD Vance’s recent speech in Munich in an interview with the Washington Reporter, saying that “everyone wants to talk about the special relationship between the U.S. and Europe, and it exists, but sometimes to have that relationship you have to have frank conversations about what’s going wrong.”
Grogan said Wednesday’s event is an opportunity for the U.S. and other nations to “draw inspiration from one another to advance pro-family policies, common sense economics,” and more. He also noted that these policies, such as freedom of speech and religious freedom, “are all issues that unite people across both sides of the Atlantic.”
BUDAPEST — On the shores of the Danube River lies its Pearl: the grand city of Budapest. Sitting in the city’s gorgeous Castle District is the Four Seasons Gresham Palace — once the home of a life insurance company, the hotel served as the home of a critical conversation surrounding America’s relationship with European Union nations.
The EU-US Forum, an organization that “exposes the threat of the extreme liberal agenda being peddled by the European Union and is working to reverse its harmful policies,” held a foreign policy panel in Budapest ahead of CPAC Hungary.
EU-US Forum board member Matt Mowers and senior adviser Joseph Grogan hosted a conversation with conservative communications legend Jason Miller where the trio discussed the economic and political relationship between America and the EU.
Mowers referenced Vice President JD Vance’s recent speech in Munich in an interview with the Washington Reporter, saying that “everyone wants to talk about the special relationship between the U.S. and Europe, and it exists, but sometimes to have that relationship you have to have frank conversations about what’s going wrong.”
“And I think that’s where President Trump has really done an incredible job,” Mowers said. “Is having that type of honest, direct conversation with Europeans, saying that we have to have a true, fair-balanced economic and trade partnership.”
“That have to respect free speech, that you can’t just be using a digital markets act to try and go after US tech innovators,” Mowers continued. “That you have to have steady migration controls, otherwise people lose control of their own country, from this standpoint of both security and economic security, and you have to respect the will of the voters.”
Mowers said that respect toward the will of the voters is “something we haven’t seen” at the EU level and, in the cases of some countries, “even at the national level.”
“So I expect that at the end of the next four years, we have a stronger U.S.-European relationship, but it’s going to be a relationship that is built upon the fundamental idea of be honest with each other,” Mowers added.
Mowers told the Reporter that he thought Miller hit the nail on the head with his first answer of the panel, where he said “we can’t take these rights for granted.”
“You know, we assume that everywhere in Western Europe properly thinks the same way we do: free speech is guaranteed,” Mowers said. “It’s not. … A number of countries don’t have free speech protections, and you’re seeing that those lack of protections, where you have police officers showing up at the home of a parent — maybe they commented about a teacher in a WhatsApp chai and things like that in the UK. Or you’ve got German officials gong off to try and classify everything through a form of hate speech, when really it’s just an expression of opinion.”
Hungary as a nation, however, has lived up to the nickname of its capital city and become a pearl of conservatism in a sea of leftism. This fact was not lost on panel attendees.
“I think it’s important to remember how important Hungary has been for conservatives in the United States to draw inspiration from [Hungarian Prime Minister Victor] Orbán’s leadership and the way he’s spoken out for sovereignty,” Grogan told the Reporter in an interview. “The way he’s spoken out for speech, the way he’s spoken out for common sense immigration policies, even before Trump was elected, and then, of course, during the Biden administration.”
Grogan said Wednesday’s event is an opportunity for the U.S. and other nations to “draw inspiration from one another to advance pro-family policies, common sense economics,” and more. He also noted that these policies, such as freedom of speech and religious freedom, “are all issues that unite people across both sides of the Atlantic.”
“And, unfortunately too often, you have the elites or a ruling bureaucracy that’s hostile to where the average Hungarian, the average European, the average American wants to go,” Grogan said. “So I think it’s important for us to have conversation in member states, in capital cities like Budapest, and talk about shared values among American voters and average citizens over here.”
Grogan also noted the safety of Budapest as a city and that “when people look to Hungary, they see a country with a leader who has the courage to speak his mind and speak truth to power and to call Brussels out on some of the more insane policies, whether it’s net-zero energy policies or anti-free speech and anti-Christian bias.”
Hungarian cuisine was not lost in the conversation, either, with both Mowers and Grogan praising goulash and chicken paprikash — two of Hungary’s most notable dishes — as well as the seasonal, cold-served sour cherry soup.
During the chat, Mowers noted the attacks “on free speech we continue to see” from the EU, the “energy policies creating national security crises” for the US and EU, and the “limited opportunities to push back” against the policies that have impacted both hemispheres. The EU-US Forum conducted “extensive polling” ahead of the EU parliamentary elections that, according to Mowers, showed “people were fed up with the status quo.” One prime example of this exasperation was illustrated through the over 70 percent of respondents supporting the clampdown on unchecked migration.
Miller mentioned during the panel that freedom of speech is a huge issue and that the “creep from the EU” against free speech “ultimately impacts the United States.”
One example raised by Miller is the United Kingdom’s ongoing effort to gain a backdoor into tech giant Apple’s iCloud service. Miller said the U.K.’s argument is that “they have to get access to iCloud” in order to go after criminals and that their backdoor would only be used to get “the bad people.” He also noted that bureaucrats in Brussels “want to snuff out” free speech and dissention, and that people “are tired of the unchecked mass migration” and of “the overlords in Brussels” telling their countries what to do.
“Elections have consequences,” Miller said, noting that “Joe Biden allowed into the United States two Hungaries” worth of unchecked, unvetted illegal migrants. He also warned Hungarians that, if “you don’t think the prime minister’s opponents will do the same thing,” you may want to rethink that logic.
“The EU are very important partners,” Miller said, noting that many nations are “longtime allies” of the U.S., including those who helped bring people freedom after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Miller noted Hungary as an example.
Miller also said that President Donald Trump realizes we “have a finite time window” to maintain “Western world” freedoms and maintain a “good relationship” between the US and the EU.
“We’re in this together,” Miller said, noting the fight is for the “future” of the western world and that “President Trump will be the torch-bearer” for protecting freedoms and democracy.
