Hungarian minister committed to the EU integration of the Balkans

The European community “must pacify the Balkans” through integrating the region in the European Union, the minister of regional development told a roundtable conference on Friday.

Tibor Navracsics said the European Union “does not currently have a decisive will that could be made into an official position on the integration of the Western Balkans”. The EU is “dominated by enlargement fatigue” while “European integration in itself is a peace project” which put an end to wars on the continent between 1870 and 1945, he insisted.

That “peace project” should be extended in the direction of the Balkans, he added. He urged that the community, which he said was “becoming closely-knit, particular, and petty-minded and ungenerous” should make “the next jump”.

Read alsoOrbán: It is time for the EU to include Serbia and the other W Balkan countries among its members

Source: MTI