Hungarian foreign minister meet Serbian’s EU integration minister

Budapest, August 31 (MTI) – The stability of southeastern Europe is a national security and economic interest, so Hungary is making every effort to support Serbia’s European Union accession talks, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday.

After talks with Serbia’s EU integration minister Jadranka Joksimovic, Szijjártó said that any attempt by EU institutions or member states to slow down Serbia’s integration process is “unacceptable”. Serbia has fulfilled all the conditions for opening accession talks, he added.

Szijjártó said Hungary would call on the EU institutions to complete the Serbian accession talks by 2020 at the latest.

The minister said that the Carpathian Basin would be a happier place to live in if all of Hungary’s neighbours did as much for their ethnic Hungarian minorities as Serbia did.

As the situation in the western Balkans is still a matter of concern, stabilising the region through integration should be a primary task for the European Union, Szijjártó said.

The region’s instability, and its resultant failure to halt the migration wave, would pose an “incredible danger” for Hungary. He noted that the European institutions had passed eight decisions that encouraged “people in undoubtedly difficult situations” along Europe’s southeastern borders to leave for this continent, he said.

Szijjártó reiterated that Hungary would not let anyone enter its territory and that of the Schengen zone and the European Union unchecked.

The minister said that the fence erected along the Hungarian-Serbian border last year was meant to keep out those who wanted to enter Hungary “illegally, by violating our sovereignty and borders.” He noted that it was not the Serbs who wanted to cross the border illegally and en masse.