Orbán cabinet: Hungarian presidency to give impetus to EU enlargement in Western Balkans, Montenegro steps forward

The foreign minister said on Monday that the Hungarian presidency of the Council of Europe will significantly accelerate EU enlargement by promoting the Western Balkans’ accession.

Accession chapters with Montenegro

The ministry cited Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó as saying on Facebook after talks with Montenegro’s EU affairs minister Maida Gorcevic that four accession chapters are expected to be closed with Montenegro in December.

He said one of the most important targets of the Hungarian presidency is to speed up the accession process in the Western Balkans.

“We are at the threshold of another success, because we expect to close four chapters of talks with Montenegro in December, which is a great achievement considering that the last time an accession chapter was closed was two years ago,” he said.

“Speeding up the accession process is a matter of credibility from the point of the European Union because the Western Balkans countries have been waiting for the possibility of membership for an average 15 years,” Szijjártó added.

“In the past years, we would always hear from our western European friends that EU membership must be based on the merits of the individual candidate countries”, he said.

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The merits of Western Balkans

“The reality, however, is that the merits of Western Balkans countries have been repeatedly neglected,” Szijjártó added.

“It would be good if everyone understood that the European Union needs new impetus, freshness and new energies, and the Western Balkans countries can provide all these,” he said.

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