Schengen

Army starts reinforcing barriers along Hungary-Serbia border

Budapest, April 3 (MTI) – Hungary’s armed forces have started reinforcing barriers on stretches of the Serbian border in response to a recent increase in illegal border crossings, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The temporary barriers were erected last autumn with a heavy involvement of the army in order to hold back a wave of illegal migrants. Soldiers serving near the border initially participated in the construction of the barrier and then started supporting local police, the ministry said in a statement.

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“Cooperation between the Hungarian army and Hungarian police is exemplary, the officers serving on the borders make every effort to guarantee people’s safety, the protection of Schengen borders and the security of European countries,” the ministry said.

An MTI correspondent reported from the site that soldiers have started building a fence at several spots between Kelebia and Asotthalom where previously only barbed wire had been laid because the terrain was difficult to cross, including water streams and reeds.

Police said on its website that between Monday and Saturday, 879 people crossed the border illegally, as against 822 during the three weeks before Monday.

Photo: MTI

Hungarian-Bulgarian business forum hold in Budapest – UPDATE

Budapest, March 17 (MTI) – Hungary urges that Bulgaria should be allowed to join the Schengen regime as soon as possible, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, told a Hungarian-Bulgarian business forum in Budapest on Thursday.

The minister argued that Bulgaria’s Schengen integration would give “new impetus” to trade ties with Hungary and that country.

He said Europe’s migrant crisis comes with serious economic risks and had shaken the Schengen Area to its core. Bulgaria is not yet a member of the bloc, but had done more over the past months for Schengen’s survival than some Schengen members, Szijjártó said.

The minister said that political ties with Bulgaria were “settled”, which facilitates further trade development. He noted that the turnover of bilateral trade had reached 1.3 billion euros in 2015, 14 percent up from the previous year.

Szijjártó announced that Hungarian low-fare airline Wizz Air will operate three direct flights a week between Budapest and Sofia starting in November.

He also announced that the two countries will sign an economic cooperation agreement and set up a Hungarian-Bulgarian mixed economic committee.

Bulgarian economy minister Bozhidar Lukarski said there were multiple areas in which Hungary and Bulgaria can work together, adding that bilateral economic ties were dynamic.

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Bozhidar Lukarski economy minister and Péter Szijjártó foreign minister

Photo: MTI

Hungarian-Baltic forum hold in Budapest

Budapest, March 16 (MTI) – Hungary’s trade with the Baltic states rose by 9 percent last year alone and doubled since 2010, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a business forum in Budapest on Wednesday.

In his closing remarks Szijjarto said economic ties are planned to be made stronger with the help of a 370 million euro credit line secured by Eximbank for cooperation between Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Hungarian companies.

Szijjártó noted that keeping the Schengen zone intact is a vital issue for all four states, as they are all “open economies”.

He said a company already present in Hungary with “British background and using an Estonian knowledge base” is soon to announce opening of a new service centre in Budapest, creating jobs.

On the subject of relations with Russia, the foreign minister said that Moscow is important as an economic and trading partner for all four countries and that he trusts EU-Russian relations would move along a positive track in terms of security policy, economic and trade ties.

Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand told the forum that bilateral trade between Estonia and Hungary totalled 257 million euros last year, and in her opinion, there was room for further growth.

Lithuanian deputy economy minister Rasa Noreikiene said relations among the Baltic states and Hungary were especially strong in rail and road transport as well as in the vehicle industry.

Latvian foreign ministry state secretary Andrejs Pildegovics said Latvia was interested in Hungary’s trade experiences with Asian countries, especially China.

Addressing a forum of diplomats from the Baltic states earlier in the day Szijjarto said Hungary and the Baltics have recently had to face a number of unexpected challenges, which he said could get even more difficult in 2016. It is in these challenging times that Hungary and the Baltics will mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of their diplomatic relations, he added.

Szijjártó said Hungary is proud to have contributed to Baltic airspace protection in 2015 and is prepared to continue this form of cooperation.

Szijjártó told reporters after addressing the diplomats that by the time Estonia takes over the rotating presidency of the European union in January 2018, Hungary intends to have a diplomatic presence in Tallinn that will make cooperation with the Estonian presidency easier. Hungary closed its embassy in Tallinn in 2014, merging it with the embassy in Helsinki as a cost-cutting measure. Tallinn currently has a Hungarian institute where cultural diplomacy tasks are carried out.

He said NATO enlargement could be one of the most effective answers for the alliance’s challenges from the east. Hungary and the Baltics fully support Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia and Macedonia’s preparations for joining the organisation. Regarding EU border protection he said neither Hungary nor the Baltics accept mandatory migrant quotas. Stronger ties with the countries involved in the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme could make the regions east of Europe safer, he added.

Photo: MTI

Hungary spent EUR 257m on managing migration in 2015

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Budapest (MTI) – The Hungarian government spent a total of 80 billion forints (EUR 257m) on managing the migration crisis last year, the prime minister’s chief domestic security advisor told a press conference on Friday.

György Bakondi said there are currently a total of 2,200 migrants in Hungary either in immigration detention or staying at community shelters.

Hungary once again saw a rise in illegal entrants during the first two months of the year, Bakondi said, adding, however, that the migrant inflow has recently decreased, with border police arresting only 40 people over the past two days.

He said that in mid-March Hungarian police officers will join their Austrian, Czech and Polish colleagues in protecting the Macedonian-Greek border.

Bakondi said that with the western Balkan countries closing their borders to illegal migrants, the only way into Europe is with a valid Schengen visa.

He said that the sealing of the western Balkan route has left a significant number of refugees stranded in Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.

Bakondi said there are currently about 36,000 migrants stranded in Greece with 2,000-3,000 people arriving daily from Turkey. Some 15,000 migrants are stranded near the village of Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border. A total of 1,500 people are stranded in Macedonia, a further 2,000 in Serbia and 500 in Croatia, all of whose fates are uncertain, he added.

The security advisor noted that Turkey is housing 2.7 million Syrian refugees, 600,000 more than in January, and the Turkish minister in charge of migration has warned that the country will not take back migrants who reach Greece.

Photo: Balázs Béli

Foreign minister: Migrant crisis would not have escalated if Europe had listened to Hungary

Budapes (MTI) – If European leaders had listened to Hungary a year ago, the migrant crisis would not have escalated to the point that it has, Hungary’s foreign minister told MTI on Friday.

Péter Szijjártó responded to comments German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel made to German public television channel ARD. The German politician said the migrant crisis had escalated because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had decided not to observe the European Union’s asylum laws and refused to take in refugees. Gabriel said that it was because of the Hungarian government’s migrant policy that Germany decided it was better for them to take in refugees than to leave them stranded.

Gabriel said it was Orbán’s violation of EU law that led to the crisis and not Germany’s decision to take in migrants. He said the only error Germany made in its handling of Europe’s migrant inflow was that it had overestimated other European leaders’ willingness to share the burden of resolving the crisis. If one million migrants would have been distributed among EU member states, nothing would have changed, the vice chancellor said.

Szijjártó said in response that “certain European leaders still try to paint false claims as reality.” Contrary to Gabriel’s claims, not only did Hungary not violate EU laws, but it is the only country that observes EU regulations by protecting the Schengen zone’s external borders, he said.

The minister said Hungary was always willing to admit genuine refugees but believes that people who leave so-called safe countries like Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia or Austria to get to Germany are not refugees but illegal economic migrants. “Hungary refuses to admit illegal economic migrants,” he insisted.

Szijjártó said more and more countries are beginning to realise that Hungary’s solution to the crisis is the only viable one.

Photo: MTI

Orbán: Mandatory quota system must be blocked

Budapest, February 22 (MTI) – Blocking the EU mandatory quota plans for distributing migrants will be a number one priority for the Hungarian government in the upcoming period, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Parliament on Monday, in a briefing on last week’s EU summit.

The cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to fend off this “attempt by Brussels to … relocate people to Hungary regularly and in large numbers that Hungarians don’t want to live with, ” Orbán said.

The next EU summit planned for early March will focus on this issue, whether member states are willing to sanction a clause to be built into EU legislation requiring countries like Hungary to automatically receive migrants, he said. The new clause would work as a “standard mechanism for refugees, it would continously send migrants that Hungary does not want to accept and that it currently stops at its southern borders,” he added.

Orbán said the situation in the west is “getting more and more strained” and the pressure is increasing on the Visegrad countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Orbán noted that the EU had earlier made a one-off decision about relocating 160,000 migrants, but Hungary and Slovakia had attacked this decision at the European court.

Hungary’s response to the 2015 migrant crisis in connection with illegal entrants had been to “control, identify, block and return” them, just as the Schengen rules prescribe, he said.

An important milestone at the summit was that for the first time the community accepted Hungary’s approach for the whole of Europe and agreed that it was a priority to stop the migrant inflow, Orbán told lawmakers. It was made clear that external borders must be protected, a goal that used to come second to refugee and humanitarian considerations, he said. It was also made clear that everyone must keep fully to the rules of Schengen, Orbán said, adding that the EU is now “where it should have been a year ago”. The countries of the “Balkan route”, including Austria have “started to walk the path of common sense,” he added.

This means that “protecting our southern borders has become a possibility” and if Austrians and other countries keep their word it will be easier for Hungary to do so, too. The physical barriers must be reinforced, however, and “possibly extended”, though the government has not made any decisions in this respect yet, he said.

On another subject of the summit, Orbán said that free movement rules had been protected with the help of the V4 block so that they should continue to apply to the entire bloc and all its citizens. They also managed to protect the idea that social services for people already paying contributions into the UK system should not be affected by changes, Orbán said, adding that the real dispute is about services to non-paying citizens of third countries. Even this latter group will not lose its benefits, these will only be suspended, and only in justified cases, he said. As a result of the deal brokered, even those benefits will stay in place for which workers are not paying any contributions. Further, it is an important achievement that new rules will not apply to workers commuting from another country, he added. He said benefits after children will also be kept, but in cases where the children reside in the home country and not in the UK these benefits will be indexed according to the country of their residence. This problem affects about 220 Hungarian cases, Orbán said.

He said all changes to the EU that are possible without modification of its treaties have now been made and it is now up to the British to decide whether they remain members. For Hungary it is an honour to be in the same community as Britain and it would be happy to see the UK stay in the EU, Orbán said.

Hungary, Serbia coordinate actions against illegal migration

Budapest, February 19 (MTI) – Interior ministers Sándor Pintér of Hungary and Nebojsa Stefanovic of Serbia discussed joint measures to stem illegal migration at Roszke, near the Serbian border, on Friday.

Illegal migration will remain a challenge, Pinter told a joint press conference. The Austrian government’s recent announcement on capping the number of migrants received per day will make things more difficult for Hungary and Serbia.

“We must be ready to protect our borders,” he said.

Stefanovic said the two countries will cooperate on filtering new arrivals. They will decide on whom to let into Europe and whom to declare as economic migrants.

Photo: MTI

Hungary urges Greece to stick to Schengen rules

Budapest, February 11 (MTI) – Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, rejected critical remarks made by the Greek deputy foreign minister in connection with the migrant crisis in a recent press interview.

It is ironic that the Greek deputy foreign minister “is trying to teach us about solidarity and the rules,” he said.

Nikos Ksidakis, the Greek deputy minister, told Thursday’s Népszabadság that Greece “is disappointed by the accusations made against Athens by the Hungarian government in connection with the refugee crisis … The Hungarian government is making accusations rather than helping to handle the refugee crisis,” he said.

In response, Szijjártó said that Europe is defenceless from the south because Greece has failed to stick to the Schengen requirements.

Hungary accepts that a country is unable to defend a maritime border of thousands of kilometres from its own resources. For this reason, it proposed some months ago setting up a European defence force which is able to protect the EU’s southern border, he said.

“We need soldiers, police officers, ships, helicopters, aircract rather than bureaucrats and Frontex officals for defending the border,” the minister said, adding that Hungary would contribute staff to common border protection.

Photo: MTI

Foreign minister: V4 seeking alternative strategies for protecting Schengen

Budapest, February 4 (MTI) – As the Visegrad Four (V4) countries are friends of the Schengen Area, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic must come up with alternative strategies for protecting the bloc’s external borders, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told public news channel M1 late on Wednesday.

The minister said Macedonia and Bulgaria have been invited to an emergency V4 summit on migration scheduled for mid-February because the European Union’s southern borders require stronger protection.

On the topic of Britain’s EU renegotiation, Szijjártó said the EU’s interest lies in keeping the UK in the bloc. “The EU is stronger with Britain than without it,” he said.

Szijjártó said Hungary supports some of Britain’s demands. The minister also noted that Poland’s prime minister is scheduled to visit Hungary next Monday after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, meaning that the three countries will get a chance to try to reach an agreement on Britain’s proposals. Szijjarto stressed, however, that Hungary seeks to protect the rights of its citizens working in the UK.

Concerning his talks with Poland’s foreign minister, Szijjártó said he and Witold Waszczykowski agreed that there are global issues, such as energy policy or the Syrian conflict, that can only be resolved through pragmatic cooperation with Russia.

As regards the Ukraine conflict, Szijjártó said all parties involved must adhere to the Minsk Agreement, adding, at the same time, that Europe must pursue dialogue with Russia, as failure to do so would lead to further losses in competitiveness on the EU’s part.

Photo: MTI

Bulgaria should be included in Schengen Area, says PM’s security advisor

Budapest (MTI) – In order to stop the wave of migrants, it has been proposed that Bulgaria should be included in the Schengen Area, the prime minister’s domestic security advisor said on Tuesday.

Gyorgy Bakondi told public news channel M1 that one of the main problems is that Schengen-member Greece allows migrants to pass through.

As a result, it has also been proposed that non EU-member Macedonia should be granted significant support to stop the “unchecked and uncontrolled” mass influx.

EU-member Bulgaria is not a Schengen Area member. A 30 km razorwire fence is being built on Balkan country’s border with Turkey in order to stop the illegal entry of migrants even though the EU’s poorest state is not on the Balkan route used by migrants.

Photo: MTI

EU Netherlands presidency committed to Schengen, says Dutch ambassador

Budapest, January 21 (MTI) – The Netherlands, as president of the European Union, is committed to keeping both the Schengen Area and the EU together, and the migrant influx does not warrant the establishment of a “mini-Schengen”, the Dutch ambassador said on Thursday.

The Netherlands wants to see the European Commission implement its migration policy as quickly as possible, emphasising the importance of strengthening Europe’s external borders and supporting Turkey, Gajus Scheltema told a press conference. He said migrants are coming to Europe because they are fleeing crises, and he insisted that many of them are genuine refugees.

The ambassador stressed the need to continue the fight against terrorism.

On the topic of employment, he said EU citizens must be given equal rights in each member state so that they can exercise their right to free movement.

Outlining the presidency’s programme, he said The Netherlands wants to run an effective EU presidency with a focus on challenges faced by the bloc. Besides migration and security, the main focus areas of the presidency in January-June include innovation and job creation, the stability of the euro zone, as well as climate change and energy policy, Scheltema said.

Hungary’s government: Schengen borders to shift to northern Greece

Budapest (MTI) – The southern borders of the Schengen zone are shifting towards the northern borders of Greece, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.

Szijjarto spoke in response to a statement by Macedonia earlier in the day, announcing that Macedonia had closed its joint borders with Greece to migrants headed to western Europe. Hundreds of migrants are stuck on Greek land as a result of the measure.

“All this is a logical consequence of Greece still not taking its part in Schengen obligations,” he said.

Szijjarto will hold talks with Daniel Mitov, the Bulgarian foreign minister, in Bulgaria in Thursday and this issue may be discussed.

Hungarian foreign minister: “Mini-Schengen” unacceptable

Budapest, December 4 (MTI) – Hungary sees European plans to restrict the Schengen area of free movement as “unacceptable” since countries that have “bent over backwards” to enforce Schengen regulations would be cast out, the foreign minister said on Friday.

Speaking on public news television M1, Peter Szijjarto said countries that “encouraged migrants to disregard the Schengen rules and enter” were conspiring to shrink the Schengen zone.

The “mini-community” set up by Germany, the Benelux states, Austria, and possibly France, would exclude those countries that have used every means to meet Schengen requirements, he insisted.

Greece cannot meet Schengen criteria, Szijjarto said. He said whereas it was not easy to control several thousand kilometres of borders crossed by “6,000-10,000 illegal migrants” each day, Greece should have applied for European Union help.

Szijjarto said there was a real danger that the Schengen border will be shifted from Greece’s southern border to the north, because Macedonia has stepped up controls along its border with Greece. “Non-EU member Macedonia has demonstrated its commitment to protecting Europe and the European Union,” Szijjarto said, added however that the “best solution” would be to protect the EU’s southern border by setting up an European force for the purpose.

Photo: MTI

Orban: Ejecting Hungarians out of Schengen would be “unacceptable”

Budapest, December 4 (MTI) – It would be “unacceptable” were Hungarians to be deprived of free movement within the European Union, the prime minister said in a radio interview on Friday.

Viktor Orban told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio that several EU countries — mainly the founders — wanted to separate themselves from central and eastern European countries, from where migrants are entering the bloc.

“Any kind of move that would deprive Hungarians of the possibility of free movement would be completely unacceptable from Hungary’s point of view, since we are the only member of the Schengen zone which genuinely protects Schengen… ” he said.

He noted that countries of the Visegrad Group (Czech Rep, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia) had agreed in Prague on Thursday to work together to protect their own freedoms, and for this reason they have set up a “Friends of Schengen” circle.

In connection with Hungary’s decision to sue the European Commission due to its objections to mandatory migrant quotas, the prime minister said the move was not symbolic but substantive. In court “we want to put aside” the decision on quotas which Hungary regards as contrary to EU law, he said. “Brussels cannot tell us whom to live with,” Orban added.

Political actors in the world must work to make sure that whoever leaves their homelands is returned to where they belong, he said. This is why it is important to settle the situation in Syria so that everyone from there can be returned. “We must start rebuilding that world,” he said.

Orban insisted that the agreement the EU struck with Turkey was logically flawed. Whereas Hungary supports the deal with Turkey it believes a vitally important precondition should be Europe’s ability to protect its own borders. “We cannot beg for security,” he said. At the same time, it would not be wise for Hungary to veto the EU-Turkey pact, he added.

But no kind of agreement should come about whereby hundreds of thousands of migrants are transported to Europe, involving the forced distribution of those migrants among EU member states, he insisted. “There was such an idea, and a brake must be put on this idea — and I think it has been taken off the agenda — but new attempts to reintroduce are constantly being made,” the prime minister said.

Speaking about the registration of a European citizens’ initiative to trigger Article 7 against Hungary, Orban said this was “revenge” and concerned Hungary’s handling of the “mass migration”.

“There are leaders, business circles, human rights activists, who are angry with the Hungarians for confronting their ideologies and proving that it really is possible to protect this continent in a democratic way and taking to account the will of European people,” he said, adding that Hungary would defend itself from this act of revenge which had been organised by foundations and activists supported by Hungarian-born financier George Soros and European bureaucrats in Brussels, as well as left-liberal European leaders who think that “nations are bad”. Hungary’s view is that “without nations there is no Europe”.

The prime minister argued that a gap is emerging between European people and the will of leaders, and this posed a problem for democracy. “You cannot go against the people,” he said. Instead of the liberal era, there should be a democratic one in Europe, he added.

Meanwhile, he said Hungary must weigh the impact on domestic companies of free trade agreements the United States has signed with trading partners in Asia before forming an opinion on the TTIP pact. Commenting on the US-EU talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Orban said free trade agreements the US had reached with Asian countries in the meantime would “impact the international competitiveness of Hungarian companies”.

“We must assess whether these agreements present an advantage or a disadvantage to Hungary because this could influence our position on TTIP,” he added.

Photo: MTI

V4 prime ministers reject “mini-Schengen” idea

Prague, December 3 (MTI) – The four Visegrad countries reject plans to reduce the Schengen area of free movement within the European Union, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told a press conference after a meeting of his V4 counterparts in Prague on Thursday.

Sobotka said that “opportunistic proposals” would not resolve the migrant crisis but jeopardise free movement, the “greatest achievement” of European integration.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban referred to an initiative made at the summit to set up a “Friends of Schengen” group, in which participants would contribute to reinforcing the external borders, and said it was a crucial proposal. He added, however, that border protection was an “issue of sovereignty” and a national competency.

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Orban also proposed that the EU should assist Macedonia, which bears a large migration burden.

Photo: MTI

Hungary lifts temporary border inspections on the Hungarian-Slovenian border

Hungary lifts border control on the the Hungarian-Slovenian border, which was implemented in October due to immigration reported the Wednesday’s edition of “Magyar Közlöny”.

slovenia-hungary2The decision comes into effect today.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on October 17 that Hungary temporarily restored border controls on the Hungarian-Slovenian border as there was a serious risk that migrants try to enter the territory of Hungary through Slovenia.

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ISLAMIC STATE COULD CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE TO HUNGARY

The temporary border control was implemented within the framework of the Schengen Convention; then, Szijjártó stressed that inspections will remain in force as long as the situation warrants.

100km long fence on the Slovenian – Croatian border 

translated by hungarianambiance.com

Orban meets Macedonian counterpart in Budapest

Budapest, November 20 (MTI) – The European Union’s founding treaty should be reconsidered, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after meeting Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski on Friday.

The prime minister said European should face up to the fact that migrants come from areas involved in military conflict with EU members. “We are considered enemies in those countries, and the acts of terror committed in our areas are considered war successes over there”, he said, adding that “allowing people into our own back yard” who may then commit acts of terrorism was irresponsible.

The EU should protect its borders, culture, economic interests and its democracy, Orban said.

“The founding treaty is currently an obstacle to this and I believe it needs to be reconsidered,” Orban said.

In order to make Europe effective, basic questions need to be reevaluated, he added. It is increasingly obvious that the EU is capable only of responding to crises rather than taking preventive measures. Citing the Paris terror attacks, he said it was only afterwards that European politicians started assigning security its proper role.

Orban said it was the British who first pushed the issue in connection with the EU’s founding treaty, and they want to make changes to European regulations that will be impossible without amending them.

In response to a query about whether he considered the Schengen system dead, similarly to the Dublin agreement, he said “Dublin is dead, Schengen is alive”. An increasing number of EU countries neglect the Dublin agreement but everybody is trying to uphold Schengen because if it fails then “walls and fences will rise and border controls will be put in place between countries where they have not been used.” The possibility of free travel between Schengen members needs to be maintained, and this is only possible if external Schengen borders are protected, he added.

“One should either be a Schengen member and protect its borders or if they do not protect the borders, they should not be a Schengen member,” Orban said.

Orban told Gruevski that all EU members and candidates are expected to possess the capabilities to protect their borders and assured him that Hungary was prepared to provide help in border protection, including with technical, financial and human resources. Contacts have been named to maintain relations, including the interior minister in Hungary.

Orban confirmed that Hungary backs Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union and NATO. Disputes should not get in the way of what is a European interest, he said in reference to the Greece-Macedonia dispute. Hungary believes every country’s performance should be assessed on its merits. He described Macedonia as a well-prepared country that the EU needs.

It is Hungary’s strategic interest that every country located between Hungary and Greece should be an EU and NATO member, he said. Currently, there is a “gaping hole” between Hungary and Greece, he added.

Orban praised Gruevski’s efforts made towards Macedonia’s “gradual stabilisation”, adding that the EU can consider it the most stable country in the Balkans.

He expressed hope that an upcoming meeting of the Hungarian-Macedonian mixed economic committee would give a boost to economic cooperation.

Photo: MTI