Visegrad Conference Marks End Of Hungary Presidency

(MTI) – Energy security was one of the most important issues for the Hungarian presidency of the Visegrad group over the past year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday.

Examples of this are the recent Polish proposal for a European energy union and the natural gas interconnector between Hungary and Slovakia, which allowed gas to be transported to Hungary from a non-Russian source for the first time, Orban told a press conference. The latter is a fantastic achievement with geo-political significance, he said after an event that marked the end of Hungary’s twelve-month presidency of the V4.

Orban said during the Hungarian V4 presidency all agreements aimed at building the north-south transport corridors have been signed.

“It is no illusion that in a few years roads and rail links of the highest standards will be available for travel from the Adriatic to the Baltic sea,” he said.

Europe needs new tools in the new era it has embarked on, Orban told a conference entitled “The Visegrad Group – Growth Engine of Europe” earlier in the day. The conference, organsied by the Visegrad countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, was held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Orban said it was time the states of central Europe were louder in voicing their opinions on sensitive issues. Central Europe has authority to do so, as without it the continent’s economy would not grow, he insisted.

Hungary’s position is that the European Union’s contracts, including financial treaties, must be observed, and Hungary rejects any “surreptitious” changes to the EU’s basic treaty. Further, it considers blocking some sections of the fiscal pact an “extremely dangerous experiment,” he added.

On immigration, the Hungarian government is of the opinion that the free movement of labour must be ensured within the EU, but external immigration should be significantly slowed down, he said. If the continent needs skilled labour it should spend more on training its existing unskilled workforce, such as Hungary’s Roma, he added.

Orban said Europe must respect its past in order to renew itself and it must respect Christianity and nations. He added that it was important that marriage and family are not turned into relative values.

Orban urged cheaper energy sources and said everyone should be given jobs, as this would put the economy on the right track. He added that the state, if temporarily, should assume a larger role in job creation.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico argued for the importance of the European Union’s cohesion policy at the conference. Cohesion policy is vitally important to EU member states as the results of the use of these resources are what the public can see best, Fico said. Slovakia will take over the rotating V4 presidency from Hungary from July.