Hungarian EU Presidency makes milestone progress on enlargement for Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania
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The Hungarian EU Presidency has focused on the Western Balkans, and the Government considers their engagement in the integration process to be particularly successful.
Three Montenegro EU accession chapters closed
Three EU accession chapters with Montenegro have been closed, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, in Brussels on Monday, adding that after 7.5 years, the integration process was speeding up thanks to the Hungarian EU presidency.
After the EU-Montenegro Intergovernmental Conference, Szijjártó told a press conference that Hungary’s presidency prioritised enlargement in view of the importance of stability, peace and development in the Western Balkans.
He said that the region’s countries have been in the EU membership corridor for 15 years on average, adding that in the absence of rapid progress, “we’d be putting not only the credibility of enlargement policy at risk but that of the entire EU in peril, too”.
He said Montenegro submitted its application in 2008, became a candidate in 2010, and negotiations began in 2012.
A merit-based process in theory had not worked in practice, “and somehow enlargement didn’t make progress even if the performance of candidate countries was good”.
Negotiation chapters on intellectual property rights, media, and enterprise and industrial policy were closed, he noted, adding that the last time the EU wrapped up a negotiation chapter with Montenegro was seven and a half years ago.
Szijjártó said Montenegro brought strength, momentum, freshness to the bloc, “something that we sorely need”, and “mutual benefits for Montenegro and the whole EU”.
Montenegro brought few risks as the bloc could easily handle the increase in population, he said. He added that as a NATO and a unilateral adopter of the euro currency, adaptation would be smooth.
Hungary’s largest bank, OTP, “is the market leader in Montenegro”, and Hungarian telecommunications company 4iG also plays an important role in Montenegro’s digitalisation development, he said.
Montenegro’s prime minister, Milojko Spajic, expressed gratitude to the Hungarian presidency for its work in speeding up the enlargement process.
Major progress made in the Serbian EU accession process
The Hungarian EU presidency has made a major step forward in advancing EU enlargement as EU affairs ministers in Brussels have approved opening a third chapter group for Serbia, according to a presidency statement on Tuesday.
Balint Odor, the head of Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the European Union, has sent a letter to the Serbian head of EU Mission on behalf of the Council of the European Union, inviting Serbia to submit its negotiating position on Chapter 16 on taxation and Chapter 19 on social policy and employment, which belong to the third group of chapters covering the topic of competitiveness and inclusive growth, the statement said.
