Ukraine must take concrete steps to secure the rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia before further EU accession clusters can be opened, Prime Minister Péter Magyar told a doorstep press briefing in Bratislava on Thursday.
PM Magyar insists performance-based accession
He said political agreement was reached in June between the Hungarian and Ukrainian governments on the educational, cultural, linguistic and administrative rights of the Transcarpathian Hungarians, but the promised concrete measures had yet to be implemented.
Magyar said the Tisza Party had supported the opening of the first and sixth clusters, but further chapters should only be opened on a performance-based accession.
The prime minister cited Serbia, which started its accession process 12 years ago, yet only two of the six clusters have been opened for it, and noted that nearly 300,000 Hungarians live in Serbia, many of whom commute to Hungary for work or study, often queuing for hours at the Schengen border.
“For this reason … and out of honesty, it isn’t fair that everyone is now demanding that we open clusters for Ukraine, when there has been no progress in the negotiations on the first and sixth clusters.” Magyar said it would be unfair if Ukraine advanced faster in EU accession than candidates that had been fulfilling the conditions for many years. “This is a very long process, and it is by no means certain that it will be successful in the end,” he said.
No progress yet on Slovakia’s Benes Decrees
Magyar said that no progress had been made yet on disputed issues between Hungary and Slovakia such as the confiscation of land without compensation, the threat of imprisonment for expressing opinions, or the Benes Decrees, adding, however, that he was confident this would happen soon.
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Speaking at a press conference in Bratislava after a meeting of Visegrad Four prime ministers and their Irish counterpart, Magyar said he and Slovak PM Robert Fico had previously agreed, and reaffirmed on Thursday, that these issues needed to be prepared at an expert level, but this had not yet happened. “I am confident that, as with any Slovak prime minister, it is in the interest of the Slovak prime minister to find solutions to these issues,” Magyar said.
He added it was clear that progress at the bilateral level could not be made until there was movement on at least the confiscation of land without compensation or the threat of imprisonment for expressing opinions. Last year, Slovakia passed a law that criminalises criticism of the Benes Decrees with up to six months in prison.
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Potential in central European cooperation greater than current reality
There is greater potential in strengthening cooperation between central European countries than has been exploited so far, Prime Minister Peter Magyar told MTI on Thursday in a press briefing in Bratislava. Speaking about the economic and trade success indicators of Visegrad Four (V4) cooperation, Magyar said he could not specify a concrete target figure for trade growth, but he was interested in growth.
He highlighted the development of north-south transport links, such as the Warsaw-Prague-Bratislava-Budapest high-speed rail project, which could also extend to Vienna, as well as cooperation opportunities in energy, the defence industry, digitalisation, health care, agriculture and the food industry. Magyar said the V4 countries could form the basis of a strong central Europe, to which other countries, including Austria, Romania and the Balkan states, could later join.
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