Hungarian FM: Hungary’s to be ‘most pro-enlargement EU presidency of all time’

Hungary’s will be the “most pro-enlargement European Union presidency of all time”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels on Tuesday, adding that the focus during accession talks would be on the “actual performance” of candidate countries rather than “bowing to political pressure”.

“We won’t allow the accession processes of certain countries to be artificially tied to one another,” Szijjártó told a press conference after a meeting of the EU-Georgia Association Council, according to a ministry statement. “We won’t allow the accession processes of any of the better-performing countries to be taken hostage by those that are falling behind.”

“We will put the focus on actual performance during the accession talks, rather than bowing to some kind of political pressure which, in fact, comes from outside players, non EU countries or NGOs,” the minister said.

Szijjártó also said that a candidate country being at war will not be considered a merit during the accession talks, warning that the bloc must not import any kind of armed conflict.

He said enlargement should be about expanding the possibility of stability and peaceful progress beyond the current territory of the EU rather than bringing the threat of war into the bloc.

Meanwhile, the minister said the accession process should be “grounded in reality” during Hungary’s presidency, with candidate countries having to meet “sensible expectations”. He explained that candidate countries should not be expected, for example, to fall fully in line with the bloc’s foreign and security policy, arguing that “regional realities should also be taken into consideration”.

“We also won’t allow good-sounding but nonsensical requirements to be set, we can’t set targets that EU member states themselves can’t meet, either,” he said.

Szijjártó said that during its EU presidency Hungary will want to help Serbia open new accession chapters, Montenegro close multiple chapters, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova to start actual, meaningful negotiations.