Hungarian PM: Ukraine should get EU visa waiver immediately

Brussels, December 16 (MTI) – Ukraine should get visa-free status in the European Union immediately, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.

“What does the European Union really do for Ukraine if it does not give it a visa waiver immediately?”, he asked at a press conference held after a meeting of EU heads of state and government in Brussels.

The prime minister said it is hard to conceive how the EU wants to use military force away from Europe without a joint army and when it cannot even influence military developments in Ukraine.

“What is more, it is incapable of even giving Ukraine a visa waiver now, although this is not even a military issue, it has no legal obstacles, and nobody dares argue against it openly,” he said.

Orbán said the Visegrad countries “strongly” supported Ukraine concerning the visa issue “independent of their possibly different positions on the (EU’s) Russia policy”.

The example of Syria shows that there is still a lot to do in the area of European security, Orbán said. If Europe does not have sufficient military power it will not be able to win in military terms and instead of “resolving issues” in Syria and offering genuine help to those who live there is only well-intentioned talk. But that does not resolve the situation which is already taken care of by others, who are already using military force in Syria, he said.

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On the subject of Hungary’s presidential election next year, Orbán said he greatly appreciated President Janos Ader’s efforts, and his continuing in the post was “among the important possibilities if he himself wishes to do so”.

On another subject, Orbán said that the EU’s energy union was a “pseudonym” to cover Brussels’ efforts to ban Hungary’s energy price cuts. He said Hungary was ready to contribute to the development of such union, but insisted that details of price regulations must be established. “Apart from Hungary there are other countries that find it inconceivable that Brussels should ban utility price cuts, or the possibility of centrally regulating energy prices, which affect hundreds of thousands of Hungarian families,” Orbán said.

Source: MTI