PM Orbán: Hungary to back Slovenia’s EU presidency

The European Union will have to address a number of serious issues over the next six months, but it is fortunate that the European Council will be headed by Slovenia during this period, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after a summit of the Visegrád Group countries and Slovenia in Ljubljana on Friday.

Addressing a news conference, Orbán identified the relaunch of the economy as the bloc’s most pressing issue. This, he said, required investments, security and the expansion of markets.

The key to boosting investments, he said, was keeping taxes level or cutting them. Security is conditional on central Europe maintaining a joint position on its opposition to migrant redistribution quotas, he added. The prime minister also said that the EU markets could only be expanded if the Western Balkan countries are admitted into the bloc as soon as possible, thereby making the EU stronger.

“Over the coming months, Hungary will do everything it can to support Slovenia’s EU presidency so that it is successful,” Orbán said.

The cooperation of central European countries is “no theory but practice,” Orbán said, pointing to the “exemplary” aid the countries provided to each other during the coronavirus pandemic.

Slovenia, with Janez Jansa as prime minister, has acted as EU president once before, Orbán said, adding that “Jansa, as one of the anti-Communist camp, has the historical perpective to assess European matters.”

In response to a question, Orbán said migration had two sources: Asia and the Sahel region. “We are withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and cutting the number of men in Sahel, too,” he said, referring to NATO’s recent withdrawal from the central Asian country. The decision will have consequences, “everyone will have to prepare for migration waves from Afghanistan,” Orbán warned.