Gyurcsany holds talks with EU officials in Brussels

Brussels (MTI) – Ferenc Gyurcsany, head of the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) party, on Thursday held talks with several European Union officials in Brussels on the current state and the future of the EU.

Gyurcsany told reporters that he met Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete, Commissioner for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic and Directorate-General for Energy Dominique Ristori.

Gyurcsany said he saw two opposing trends in the current state of the EU. “On the one hand we have the European Commission, which is determined to speed up integration, and on the other hand we have three serious challenges that the EU faces, which tend to divide us: the question of Britain’s relationship with the EU, the migration crisis and the state of Greece.”

Gyurcsany said British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent demands for reform of the bloc were “unacceptable”, insisting that the EU is “not an a la carte restaurant where one can pick and choose the things they want and then not even want to pay at the end. This is the EU. Take it or leave it.”

He said he did not understand why Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not outraged by Cameron, who he said considers Hungarian workers in the UK “second-class citizens”.

Gyurcsany said DK still believes in the EU as a federal system similar to the United States in the long term. He said the EU needed stronger leadership and should ultimately be headed by “the most influential country”, Germany.

On the topic of the migration crisis, Gyurcsany noted that earlier this week his party started collecting signatures in support of the EU’s migrant quota system. He argued that a quota system would allow for the admission of a few thousand people in a controlled and organised manner, while not having such a system in place would only leave Europe with an uncontrolled flow of people into its territory.

“Overall, we as a nation are fine. We have 10 million people. Why should we be afraid of 2,000-3,000 people from different cultures?” Gyurcsany said.

The former Hungarian prime minister said he made sure not to meet anyone connected with the contract awarded to his company, Altus, to assess EU-financed development projects between 2014 and 2020. He also said he had made sure not to be the one to bring up Hungary during his talks, saying that “it is pointless for us to fight our battles over here”.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters