Hongaarse minister: inzet EU-voorzitterschap voor uitbreiding EU geen prestige, maar goed voor heel Europa (en)

“Every presidency has to do its job to push the enlargement process forward in the interest of the EU,” Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi said, at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in the European Parliament on 16 June. “This is not a question of prestige. This is a process, which is of interest to all of us,” he added.

“I underlined forcefully that one of the priorities of our program was to take forward the enlargement process. Enlargement is a strategic value, which makes Europe stronger,” - Minister Martonyi stated before MEPs, and said that the process must be credible and viable. “We demand and deliver.” Referring to the achievements of the Hungarian Presidency, he emphasised that work has to be followed by the next presidencies as well, as the enlargement process was of a common interest of the EU and the candidate countries.

“As the motto of the Hungarian Presidency is Strong Europe, we have put enlargement in this context. We underlined, that an open Europe is definitely stronger in every sense, than a Europe closing its doors to the outside word,” he stressed.

“A key factor here is the good cooperation between the institutions,” Minister Martonyi pointed out and praised both the European Commission and the European Parliament (EP) for their excellent and decisive job. “If there are, or there will be any significant results, this will be largely due to this very successful cooperation of the institutions.”

Closing negotiations with Croatia until 30 June

The Minister mentioned that the Hungarian Presidency never lost optimism in closing the accession negotiations with Croatia until the 30 June. He listed both the 21 June General Affairs Council and the European Council as an important forum for discussing outstanding issues. “We are at the finishing line and I should not prejudge anything,” he told MEPs, but made it clear that there was a chance to conclude the negotiation process by the end of June. “The key to accession is in the pockets of the parliaments of the Member States,” he said, referring to the fact that the draft common positions, which were presentedby the Commission last week, have to be confirmed by the Member States as well.

MEPs welcomed the decision that Croatia will be subject to monitoring until the accession date and Foreign Minister Martonyi said, that even Croatia agrees with this. “There are some technical issues still to be clarified, but work is going on,” he assured his audience.

The magic of the process

According to Martonyi, a success or a failure of one country will have an immense effect on other aspirant countries. He said that the achievements of Croatia have also re-energised the efforts of other countries. “If you only think of Serbia, it is quite clear that they also make a push forward. This is the magic of the process. They take the message, and take the energy and they react,” Martonyi said.

The Minister praised the on-going dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade as a great step forward and also underlined the significance of the European perspective in feeding the discussions. As evidence for the re-energised processes, also Montenegro was mentioned. Martonyi welcomed the action plan, which was prepared by the Montenegrin government and expressed his hopes that a starting date may be set soon.

Martonyi appreciated the developments in the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). “What we hear is that positions are very close to one another and we believe that this will prove the conclusion of the modern geometry, that also parallels will meet somewhere,” he stated.

Regarding Turkey, the Minister marked it as “unlikely” that Hungarian Presidency could open any new chapters with Turkey in the remaining two weeks, but he explicitly spoke in favour of keeping the European prospect of Turkey. “This is a strategic question,” he said, and underlined that it is better to have Turkey in the EU than outside of it.

The Hungarian Presidency will hold an inter-governmental conference on Iceland’s accession on 27 June, Minister Martonyi announced at the hearing. “We will open four chapters, and we hope that two of them can be closed immediately,” he said.