Hungary is doing everything to ensure that the EU enlargement is as fast as possible and offers support for Moldova to be able to join the EU as soon as possible, during its presidency of the Council of the EU. “The enlargement of the European Union is necessary for this to be stronger in the future,” Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated at a news conference held jointly with his Moldovan counterpart in Chisinau, IPN reports.
At the same time, the Hungarian official believes that the performance of the countries that want to join the EU must be evaluated separately. “We will never agree that the joining process of one country should be influenced by another country because then those with worse performance would hold back candidates who are faster in this process,” he said.
Péter Szijjártó noted that Ukraine and Moldova need to be assessed separately, given that there are “some serious problems relating to Ukraine”, in particular regarding the violation of the rights of the Hungarian community in Ukraine, with limited access to their culture and mother tongue. Ukraine created unprecedented energy challenges for two EU member states: Hungary and Slovakia, which does not seem normal for a country that wants to join the EU.
He also said that Hungary, which holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, aims to put an end to the hypocrisy that has arisen in Brussels regarding EU enlargement. He explained that most of the EU countries speak publicly about how much they support enlargement, but when the press and the candidates for EU accession are not present, but only the 27 members, a large part of the foreign ministers speak rather against EU enlargement, and some say it is better to focus on the quality of accession rather than speed. The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU and the Polish one that will follow are pro-enlargement.
Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Popșoi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the bilateral dialogue with Hungary has developed since the beginning of this year, which opens up new perspectives in bilateral cooperation.
He appreciated Hungary’s full and unconditional support for Moldova’s European path. Moldova relies on Hungary’s support during its presidency of the Council of the EU, in the process of advancing on the path of European integration. Concrete steps are being taken to implement the action plan on sharing knowledge on the process of joining the EU, which signed on March 22 in Budapest.
In connection with this document, at least three training visits will be organized by the end of the year for civil servants of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Customs Service and LPAs, including mayors. Next week, more than 30 representatives of LPAs will travel to Budapest to learn from Hungary’s experience about local development, infrastructure projects.
Bilateral relations in the economic sector are on the rise. In 2023, Hungary ranked 12th among Moldova’s trading partners, and the volume of bilateral trade exceeded $227 million. In the first five months of the year, the figure already exceeded $90 million.
In the context of the war against Ukraine, according to Mihai Popșoi, Moldova pleads for joining efforts based on the principles of international law and the UN Charter. Within the framework of cooperation in the field of security and defense, Moldova is interested in bilateral cooperation with Hungary. Moldova turns to Hungary and appreciates the support provided within the programs that contribute to the security of the Republic of Moldova.
