Hungarian government supports UK’s continued EU membership, says foreign minister

Brussels, June 20 (MTI) – The United Kingdom’s voting to remain a member of the European Union is in the interest of the community, including Hungary, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI by phone, before a meeting of his European counterparts in Luxembourg on Monday.

The UK’s possible quitting its membership would have an “extreme impact” on the EU, he said, noting that Britain was the second largest economy in Europe and the world’s fifth strongest.

The UK and Hungary share a number views and without British support “the dialogue could take the wrong direction for Hungary,” the minister said.

For example, Szijjártó said, both Hungary and Britain think that national parliaments should have greater powers. He argued that recent crises hitting the community also proved that “the ability to make important decisions in a short time is basically at the national level”.

In an interval of the meeting, Szijjártó said that a “fundamental change” was needed in the philosophy behind the EU’s immigration policy.

The minister argued that the EU was promoting immigration, and its efforts were focused on distributing the resulting burden. Reducing that burden should be a top priority rather than distributing it, he insisted. “We should reduce the number of immigrants to a minimum,” Szijjártó said.

Source: mtva.hu