The Visegrád Group of Central European states – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic – are putting together proposals to take back powers from the European Union’s institutions and return them to the bloc’s national governments. But the group is facing attacks from NGOs funded by globalist billionaire George Soros.

EurActiv reports the four countries are drafting a common contribution to the Rome Declaration, the document which will be unveiled on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome in March.

Poland and Hungary, in particular, have had a number of recent clashes with Brussels, and worked to increase Visegrád co-operation in response.

Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), believes the EU’s mishandling of the migrant crisis risks the “liquidisation of the civilisation that grew out of Christianity” in Europe. He also sees Brexit as an opportunity to push for treaty changes which will “strengthen the nation-states and reduce the jurisdiction of the Union”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, meanwhile, pledged to lead a “cultural counter-revolution” alongside the PiS leader in late 2016.

“There is a saying in Hungary that if you trust somebody, we say ‘you can steal horses together’,” Orbán said at a public conference in September.

“There are a few stables, and one particularly large one called the EU, where we can steal horses with Hungarians,” replied Kaczyński.

EurActiv cites a number of civil society figures who are opposed to the Visegrád’s plans to enhance national sovereignty within the EU, however.

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, director of the Open Europe Programme at the Stefan Batory Foundation in Poland, is quoted as complaining that “strengthening the sovereignty of member-states will be harmful for the Polish position in Europe”.

The Stefan Batory Foundation was established by George Soros and receives funding from his Open Society Foundations organisation. Soros, the billionaire financier advocate for European integration and open borders, achieved infamy in the United Kingdom as ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank of England’.

In Hungary, Central European University visiting professor Róbert Csehi is cited as saying that “in most cases, the blame [for problems in the EU] can be put on intergovernmental institutions and member-states”. Csehi advises that Orbán should attempt to build a coalition within the European Council if he is dissatisfied with EU decision-making.

The Central European University was also founded by George Soros.

Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó complained in January 2017 that it was “very clear” that “[Soros] would like this government to fail, he would like to kind of ‘fire’ this government because he doesn’t like our approach, doesn’t like our policies – but, it’s not George Soros who has to make that decision… it’s the Hungarian people. We find it very anti-democratic”.

More recently, Prime Minister Orbán used his state of the nation address to warn Soros-funded NGOs were seeking to exert direct influence on politics in countries with anti-globalist governments:

“Here there are large predators swimming in the water,” he said, “and this is the transnational empire of George Soros.”