House Speaker hails Vojvodina Hungarian community’s progress
Speaker of Parliament László Kövér, in an interview with Subotica (Szabadka) broadcaster Pannon RTV on Tuesday, hailed the progress achieved by ethnic Hungarians living in Serbia’s Vojvodina region in recent years.
Whereas in the past many ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina had faced a dilemma of whether or not they should leave their homelands to make a living, today they are strong and successful, Kövér said, summarising his two-day visit to Serbia.
Concerning Hungary and Serbia’s minority policies, Kövér said the Hungarian government “is serious about its responsibility for the entirety of the nation”, while the Serbian government “has also understood . that we can’t be stuck in the mindset of shaping pure nation states for ourselves”.
Hungary and Serbia have therefore had to learn forms of coexistence and cooperation that are centred on supporting their national minorities, the speaker said.
Kövér praised the role of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) in Hungary and Serbia’s improvement of their relations over the years, saying that the party’s ability to build trust with Serbia’s political elite had been crucial to the strategic cooperation pursued today by the two countries on the basis of mutual interests and values.
On another subject, Kövér said Serbia’s number one national policy goal had to be becoming a full-fledged member of the European Union. “And we want to help them with this in any way we can,” Kövér said. “Not just out of friendship or because we expect something in return, but because this is also fully in line with our national interests.”
Hungary wants to convince EU leaders that Serbia’s accession to the bloc is not just in the interest of Hungary and central Europe, but is vital to the stability of Europe as a whole, Kövér said.
The EU must overcome the uncertainty it faces as quickly as possible so that it can move ahead with enlargement and so that “we can finally say that that Europe is literally reunited in a European Union embodied by a community of free and independent nation states prepared to cooperate with each other”, he said.
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Source: MTI