Hungarian FM Szijjártó: EU cannot afford Ukraine support
The European Union could not finance the huge burdens to result from planned support for Ukraine even if it was in its best shape ever, not to mention the current situation when it is in its worst, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday.
The ministry cited Szijjártó as saying that continued support for Ukraine would put huge financial burdens on the European Union, while the competitiveness of the bloc had plummeted and its economy needed to be restarted. “It would cause a huge economic tragedy for Europe if these plans were to be forced through by the leaders in Brussels,” he said.
He criticised the European political leaders’ attempts to thwart US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts, adding that a draft resolution circulated by them prior to the EU summit on Thursday which the Hungarian government immediately rejected to support was part of these attempts. He said that continuous coordination talks were under way with the US on all aspects of the current peace efforts and the European actions surrounding it.
He added that the proposals that Ukraine should be allowed to join the EU as soon as possible or at least the accession talks should be accelerated were problematic. “We could precisely see in connection with the grains market what dramatic economic effects this would have on Europe,” he said.
Commenting on a planned poll on Ukraine’s EU membership, he said accession talks had now reached the point that some essential questions need to be addressed and it was therefore timely to ask Hungarian people about whether they considered it justified that the talks should be started and the country should join.
“Let’s consider the European agriculture and cohesion resources. I believe that the European leaders’ current actions are extremely irresponsible, wanting to speed up accession talks at such an extent, therefore this is the right time for Hungarian people to tell their opinion,” he said. The foreign minister added that the government would act in line with the position reflected by the poll.
Commenting on the development of European defence capabilities, he said ” we agree with this.” “There are quite a few details that need to be clarified but considering the resources that we had mobilised in Hungary for defence industry developments in the recent period, I believe it clearly shows that Hungary also contributes to enabling Europe increase its defence capacities,” he added.
Commenting on the plans to set up a common European army, he reiterated that there were many details that needed to be clarified. He added that he continued to think that Russia did not pose a threat to any NATO member. At the same time, he expressed the view that a successful new European defence architecture could not be set up without Moscow. “It is in vain to hope that an agreement could be reached on Europe’s long-term security if the Russians were excluded from the negotiations,” he added.
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