Hungarian deputy PM called for historic reconciliation with Romania

Ukraine cannot become an European Union member before it “eliminates the disenfranchisement of Hungarians in Transcarpathia”, Hungary’s deputy PM Zsolt Semjén said at the Balvanyos Summer University now under way at Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő), in Romania, on Friday.

Historic reconciliation with Romania

Speaking at a panel discussion, Semjén said it was in the interest of both Hungary and Romania to develop a “close cooperation between two countries dependent on each other” and called for a “historic reconciliation” with Romania, as it had happened between Hungary and Serbia. He said it was “atrocious” that Romania was still not a Schengen member “whereas it has met all the requirements”, adding that “Serbia should have been co-opted to the EU long ago.”

Concerning the recent EP elections, Semjén said his Christian Democratic Party’s quitting the European People’s Party had been “emotionally taxing” after being an EPP member for 34 years. The EPP is now “far from the founders’ conservative, Christian Democratic values and recently they have embraced several liberal parties just to retain their status as the largest group in the EP,” he insisted. The Christian Democrats had decided to quit after the EPP accepted MEPs of the newly emerged Hungarian Tisza Party as members, and “for a reason of principle”, Semjén said, adding that his party “cannot identify with the EPP’s position to provide full and unconditional support to Ukraine.”

Foreign minister: EU’s weak interest representation ‘historic sin of Brussels bureaucrats’

“The EU’s ability to enforce its interests has become as weak as never before, a historic sin of the bureaucrats of Brussels,” Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Friday.

“The EU today is incapable of defending its own member states, namely Slovakia and Hungary, against Ukraine’s blackmail; which can be owed to the EC president (Ursula von der Leyen) and the EU foreign and security policy chief (Josep Borrell),” Szijjarto said on Facebook, adding that “Ukraine has put at risk some 33 percent of Hungary’s and 45 percent of Slovakia’s crude oil imports by banning the transit of oil supplies by Russia’s Lukoil.”

“And instead of defending the two member states, the European Commission is coming up with excuses to defend Ukraine’s steps,” Szijjarto said, adding that “this is an unacceptable and outrageous behaviour on the part of Brussels bureaucrats”.

The foreign minister said he had spoken by phone with Juraj Blanar, his Slovak counterpart, earlier in the day, and they had agreed to continue their coordinated action on the matter. He said they agreed that EC and Ukraine’s action were “unacceptable,” adding that “we will not yield to blackmail, should it be directed at us either from Kyiv or from Brussels”.

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