“Hungary supports Serbia’s EU accession in the strongest possible terms because it is in line with Hungarian interests from several perspectives”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday.

The Minister is attending a two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Sofia, which began on Tuesday, and held talks with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić.

Reporting on the meeting, Mr. Szijjártó said that Hungary is also a supporter of Serbia’s EU accession because it would be good for Vojvodina Hungarians, and the stability of the Western Balkans, of which Serbia is clearly one of the most critical pillars, is of extreme importance to Hungary. In addition, the more member states it has, the stronger the EU, he pointed out.

“It would be important to accelerate Serbia’s accession process”, he stressed, adding that “Hungary agrees with Serbia that the country will be ready to join the EU by 2022”.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister told the press that the new Rastina-Bácsszentgyörgy border crossing point should be ready to open by 1 April.

“This is an important step for people living on both sides of the border, and is also important from the perspective of economic cooperation”, he explained, adding that this will be the second new border crossing point established within the past three years.

(MTI)