FM Szijjártó: Hungary aims to have Albania’s EU accession chapters opened

Hungary aims to have the first three groups of Albania’s EU accession chapters opened during Hungary’s current European Union presidency, the foreign minister said in Tirana on Wednesday.

Szijjártó supports Albania’s EU accession

The ministry cited Szijjártó as saying at a joint press conference with Albanian counterpart Igli Hasani that Hungary was fulfilling the EU presidency in a period when the continent faces extraordinarily serious challenges and it has so far been unable to find effective responses.

“As a result, the EU is currently in a bad shape and its competitiveness is continually decreases. The problems need to be cured and we believe the best cure to these troubles would be the EU’s enlargement in the direction of the western Balkans,” Szijjártó said.

He said that the EU would need new impetus and new energy which the minister said “could arrive from the Western Balkans”.

“As a result, it is no exaggeration to say that the EU would need the Western Balkans countries more than those countries need EU membership,” he said.

Szijjártó said it was Hungary’s national interest that there is development, peace and stability in its neighbourhood, in the Western Balkans, and that “enlargement would serve a perfect means.”

He said this was the reason why the Hungarian government was “a passionate supporter” of EU enlargement and the most important goal of the presidency period was aligned with this.

Szijjártó said the Western Balkan countries had been waiting for accession on average for more than fourteen years.

“We consider this disrespectful with the Western Balkan countries and nations and urge the acceleration of the enlargement process,” he said.

“We clearly believe that Albania has been performing excellently in the accession process and therefore Albania deserves moving forward,” he added.

“Therefore the Hungarian presidency is planning to organise two intergovernmental conferences in Brussels between Albania and the EU, where our goal is to have the first three groups of chapters opened for Albania’s accession,” he said.

“There is no reason for delay, all further delay is against the EU’s interests and all further delay undermines the credibility of enlargement policy,” Szijjártó added.

Speaking about bilateral relations, he said the two countries had achieved great successes in economic cooperation, with a record high trade turnover last year, adding that Hungarian exports to Albania were expected to set a new record.

He said three Hungarian companies had entered the group of market leaders in three important sectors. In air transport Wizz Air is clearly at first place with its around 70 percent share, OTP is at third place among bank market players with its nearly 20 percent share, and 4iG is also market leader in the field of mobile services, and has such ambitious plans as linking Egypt and Albania with an optical cable under the sea.

“All of this shows that the cooperation of Hungary and Albania is a success story and for our part we are ready to continue this success story,” Szijjártó said.

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