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Foreign minister: EU enlargement ‘in good hands’
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European Union enlargement “is in good hands”, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said during a World Economic Forum event in Geneva on Friday, insisting that the enlargement and neighborhood portfolio would be “the Hungarian commissioner’s responsibility”.
Szijjártó told a forum on the Western Balkans attended by leaders and top officials of seven Western Balkan countries that EU enlargement policy would receive a boost. “Hungary not only talks about its political objectives but takes action to realise them, too,” he said.
“Now that a Hungarian commissioner will oversee EU enlargement, the EU policy … will gain new momentum.”
EU and Hungarian interests fully coincide with the integration of Western Balkan countries, he said.
“This is in our interest security-wise,” Szijjártó said, referring to renewed migration expected along the Western Balkan route.
“The numbers are increasing” Szijjártó said, adding that close to 100,000 illegal immigrants “have piled up” in the Western Balkans. By the end of October, Turkish authorities arrested 350,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border, 80,000 more than in the whole of last year, he said.
Szijjártó said this was why the integration of Western Balkan countries was in Hungary’s interest in terms of its security.