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Minister marks 30th anniversary of Hungarian-German friendship agreement
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Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, told an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian-German friendship agreement that EU member states that had ambitions for making changes to rules that went beyond the European basic treaties would have to reach a consensus with all member states first.
Sticking to the European Union’s basic treaties is of the utmost importance, Gulyás said, adding that any deviation from the current state of affairs was possible only by amending the EU treaties themselves.
“If we can agree on this, we won’t get into great trouble because we’ll either reach an agreement or the current framework will remain,” Gulyás said at the event in Budapest on Monday.
Enhanced cooperation created by the Lisbon Treaty would grow, he said, noting the euro zone and Schengen among them.
Gulyás said, however, that
EU member states had “differing societies … a fact we cannot, and would not, change.”
The social policies of Germany’s recently elected government would be unpalatable for Hungarian voters, he insisted. The Hungarian government “would never presume to envision German social policies … and we hope others do not want to make our policies instead of the Hungarian government,” he said.
- read also: 30th Anniversary of the Hungarian-German Friendship Treaty – Will the shared path continue?
Regarding the Hungary-German friendship agreement, Gulyás said it had seen “spectacular developments” in both countries as well as in mutual cooperation: Germany’s trade with the Visegrad Group is twice the volume of its trade with France, he said.
On cultural ties, Gulyás noted