Eurasia Forum held in Budapest – UPDATE

Cooperation between East and West, with Hungary as a bridgehead, is in the country’s interest, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at the  on Wednesday.

Cooperation among Eurasian states is the best way to strengthen Europe and make it more competitive, he said.

“We live in a rapidly changing world,” Szijjártó said.

“Old systems are collapsing, new ones are forming.”

He said the US and China were the world’s most competitive nations while the European Union lagged behind them.

Szijjártó referred to America’s “patriotic government” and its America First political and economic doctrine. China, he added, was still expanding fast, with “remarkable” annual growth of around 6 percent. He said the EU had been late to respond to these challenges. Instead of intensifying competition, the EU has embarked on policies that restrict internal competition, and this acts as deadweight on its external competitiveness, he said. Central European countries have made structural reforms, including tax reform, that has strengthened their competitiveness, he said, adding that the EU wanted to harmonise tax regimes.

“We are sending a message to western European states that we’ll block all measures to harmonise taxes …” he said.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said capital investment flows had changed direction as large eastern European companies bought up western European ones.