Hungary to protect national communities, promote vaccination of Europeans as CoE president

Hungary’s priorities for the next six months as Council of Europe (CoE) president will include enforcing language use rights, mitigating the impacts of Covid-19 on families, promoting vaccination, and supporting national communities, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Strasbourg on Friday.

Hungary is scheduled to take over the CoE presidency on May 21.

Szijjártó said Hungary would work towards “correcting the mistakes committed by Brussels” in recent months. He criticised the European response to the pandemic, saying that centralised vaccine procurements had failed.

He insisted that smaller amounts vaccines were received than necessary and shipments were delayed.

“The primary victims of that ill-advised Brussels policy are families,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of reopening schools, and argued that the classroom setting was “crucial in providing children with competitive skills as well as a community experience”. He said that reopening “requires immunity; we need to protect teachers, and kindergarten and creche staff, and it could only be done through vaccination”.