PM Szijjártó: Discrimination of Western Balkans unacceptable
Hungary belongs to the pro-enlargement camp in the European Union and considers the “discrimination” against the Western Balkans “unacceptable”, the foreign minister said ahead of a meeting of the General Affairs Council in Brussels on Tuesday.
Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook that in recent years an “anti-enlargement atmosphere has prevailed”, and none of the Western Balkans countries had been given a proper chance to advance in the accession process.
“Hungary believes that the EU needs the impetus and freshness that the countries of the Western Balkans would bring,” he said.
The accession process should progress based on the individual countries’ performance and not on “artificial, tactical considerations”, he added.
Szijjártó said that starting accession talks with Ukraine would be “irresponsible” as the European Commission had not prepared the groundwork. Neither the EU nor Ukraine were well-prepared “for mutually beneficial and well-structured accession talks”, he added.
“At the same time, the countries of the Western Balkans have been waiting for years; they are well-prepared, so it’s utterly incomprehensible why certain member countries are blocking their progress,” he said.
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Anyone dealing with Serbia needs to understand the political culture of that country which has been quite Russophile and therefore would represent a large risk for inclusion into the EU. Serbia is a violent country whose leader Vucic said in 1995 following the genocide of thousands of men and boys at Srebrenica: “You kill one Serb and we will kill 100 Muslims.” More recently he said just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “85% of Serbians will always side with Russia whatever happens.” Yeah, if Vucic is going to say that, expect 100% that the EU should “discriminate” against Serbia. Szijarto just shows how Hungary is trying to create a pro-Putin Russophile camp in the EU. Absolutely no way the EU should ever allow that – period.
Apart from all the intricacy of the Balkans (and there is a lot – see @Larry), I believe the European Union would be nuts to allow in any new Members until this EU veto matter is resolved.
Nobody should be susceptible to one small country’s blackmail, under the guise of “Own Nation First”, “Sovereignty” – or political expediency (swing state behavior).
Meanwhile, our Politicians are more than happy to support Georgia’s candidacy https://agenda.ge/en/news/2023/4782 – this is interesting to say the least, given the situation around Abkhazia (Mr. Putin´s Russia asserting itself): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67625450