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Hungarian foreign minister wants to speed up EU integration of Western Balkans
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The current crisis offers an opportunity to speed up the European Union integration on the Western Balkans, a national security and economic interest of Hungary and the EU, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday, after talks with Tanja Miščević, Serbia’s newly appointed minister for European integration.
Szijjártó told a joint press conference after the talks that Europe was facing “grave security, economic and energy supply crises” because of the sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the war in Ukraine. While the solution would be a speedy end to the conflict, EU enlargement could improve the bloc’s situation even among these difficult circumstances, he said.
The integration of Serbia, the largest country in the region, would be key in that process, he said, and called for opening the remaining 13 chapters in the country’s accession procedure. He said the integration progressed “unacceptably slowly” and slammed the “countries intentionally slowing it”, saying “all those slowing down integration are actually weakening the European Union”.
We should ask ourselves why, especially when they’re far from meeting the criteria.