Euroepan Commission ‘derails’ EU enlargement, says Hungarian FM

The European Commission has “derailed” the European Union’s enlargement process, “hugely impacting the security and future of Europe”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI from Helsinki on Friday, on the sidelines of a meeting of his EU counterparts.

Szijjártó insisted that

“Hungary and the EU has economic, strategic, security and political interests” in the bloc’s enlargement with regard to integrating the Western Balkans.

During the entire term of the current commission, the EU “did not co-opt a single new member” and “candidate countries could not take a single step forward in the process”, Szijjártó said. While there has been no enlargement, the EU will lose the United Kingdom via Brexit, he said. “This will weaken the European Union and it is also against its political and economic interests”.

“We expect the next commission to increase rather than decrease the number of member states, to accelerate enlargement in the Western Balkans and to open up all chapters in its talks with Montenegro and Serbia,” the minister said.

Concerning the issue of migration, Szijjártó said that “it is in our interest that the Western Balkans should be strong and capable of stopping migration”, adding that this required the region’s integration.

Source: mti