Preview: Bálványos Summer University to focus on Hungary’s place in Europe

Budapest, July 4 (MTI) – The 27th annual Bálványos Summer University will be held on July 19-24 in Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő), in central Romania and will focus on Hungary’s place in Europe as well as the challenges facing the continent.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is scheduled to address the event. The group leaders of Hungary’s parliamentary parties along with the leaders of Hungarian parties in neighbouring countries have also been invited to attend political discussions at the summer university this year, Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told a press conference on Monday.

Németh said that Hungary’s future was “inseparable” from that of Europe, adding, however, that Europe needed to change. This is one of the reasons for Hungary’s upcoming referendum on the European Union’s planned migrant quota scheme, he said, but stressed that the vote is not about Hungary’s EU membership.

He said the crisis Europe appears to be going through has blurred the line between domestic and foreign policy.

He listed migration, the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Brexit as elements of Europe’s crisis. He said the European Commission had not found the right way to manage the crisis and has attempted to handle the situation “by blackmail and aggressive behaviour” towards member states. Hungarians see this as the wrong approach, Németh said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI