Foreign minister: Hungary to do utmost to advance Western Balkans’ EU accession

Hungary will continue to make every effort to advance the EU accession of Western Balkan countries, which is in Hungary’s economic, strategic and security interest, the foreign minister said in a Facebook entry, after talks with his Montenegrin counterpart on Thursday.

Péter Szijjártó said he discussed with Srdjan Darmanovic the status of talks on Montenegro’s EU integration by phone.

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He said that the Hungarian foreign ministry has already assigned integration experts to work with the governments of EU aspirant Western Balkan countries.

Darmanovic praised the Hungarian expert helping the Montenegrin government and asked for an extension of the expert’s assignment by another 12 months, which the Hungarian government approved, Szijjártó said.

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He welcomed that the EU has opened the last chapter in accession talks with Montenegro and expressed hope for the EU to have new members by 2025.