Minister: Ukraine’s approach towards the EU and NATO only possible with Hungary’s consent

The head of the Prime Minister’s Office said the heightened dangers of the war in Ukraine waged by a nuclear power and adversarial militaries drifting into it must be brought to an end as quickly as possible.

Gulyás said Hungary rejected any decision that would lead to the war’s escalation. Regarding the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gulyás said the statute of the court was not part of Hungary’s legal order since, not having been legally proclaimed, it contradicted the country’s constitution. Neither Russia nor the US accept the jurisdiction of the ICC, he added. We wrote about this in details HERE.

In response to the suggestion that NATO had bypassed Hungary by convening the Ukraine committee, Gulyás said the meeting was no more than a friendly forum for discussion since certain decisions can only be made unanimously. Hungary cannot prevent the consultation, but Ukraine’s approach towards either the European Union or NATO would not be possible without Hungary’s consent, he added.

Asked whether the government planned to change its strategy on Ukraine — supposing the convening of the NATO Ukraine committee may indicate the failure of the policy followed by Hungary so far — the minister said they had wanted make a change for a long time. The problem, he added, was that Ukraine refused to change its education law.

It had also been made clear, when Hungary supported allowing Ukraine to move towards EU candidate status, that there would be no membership or negotiations until basic human rights norms were complied with when it came to the use of European Union languages, he said, adding that Hungarian diplomacy had no other means at its disposal to address this issue.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said the debate that arose in parliament within the governing party groups regarding the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden has been resolved in the case of Finland, and hopefully this would soon happen in the case of Sweden as well.

Addressing the issue of the grain market, Gulyás said the EU had not provided compensation to Hungary over the market-distorting effect of Ukrainian grain. Whereas six countries had submitted claims for compensation, he said only three had received funding. It was wrong of the EU not to provide compensation, he said, since the effect on prices in Hungary had been obvious. Hungary is prepared to take countermeasures if possible, he added.

Gulyás also indicated that the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYEI) is conducting a probe into the quality of imported Ukrainian agricultural products.

“We are being cheated,” he said. “When the EU talks about joint solidarity with Ukraine, it would be good if this did not mean ruining the wheat market of some countries with cheap Ukrainian products. Countries experiencing real deprivation should benefit, or Europe should shoulder the burden of this together,” he said.

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Referring to western Ukraine, Gulyás noted the government continuously adopted support packages for Transcarpathian Hungarians, and its latest decision involved aid of 500 million forints to support the operation of the Transcarpathian Reformed Church Diocese, the local organisation of large families, and the energy supply of schools.

Gulyás said that since Hungary was unwilling to follow the pro-war stance of the majority, negotiations with the EU on unblocking funding were progressing far more slowly. If the Hungarian political parties could represent a uniform position, “we would be better off”. The opposition, he added, was actively aiding efforts to withhold Hungary’s EU funding.

He said that since Hungary had fulfilled its commitments, the EU monies should arrive as early as April. But Brussels may opt for a political path that ignores legal requirements, he said, adding that the EU was failing to meet deadlines and acting unlawfully towards Hungary.

On the issue of the EU’s action regarding Hungary’s child protection law, Gulyás said Hungary would wait for the decision of the European court and comply accordingly. “But that does not change our goal of protecting young people, especially children, with the strongest and most effective means possible”.

“We will always have sufficient means to adopt, create and strengthen the strictest child protection system in Europe,” he said, adding that there was a good chance that the governing party group would ready a proposal to tighten the law in the first half of this year, or during the summer at the latest.

Concerning the suggestion that the European Parliament has also joined the lawsuit, he said the government trusted that, regardless of who intervened on the side of the commission, the court would act solely on the basis of the law, though there were no guarantees this would be the case.

Gulyás said education, including sex education, was clearly a national competence. In connection with paedophile crimes, the minister said that the main issue was not the severity of the punishments but rather the fact that there was no current legal recourse for protecting people above the age of fourteen.

Gulyás said there was one condition that blocked EU funds in general, and this is related to the judiciary. On this issue, Judit Varga, the justice minister, has come to agreements on all issues with the European Commission. The codified text has been sent to Brussels, and now the government is waiting for a response. He confirmed a mutually accepted draft is ready for the government to submit if approved by the commission.

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Source: MTI