“The question of security must come before all else when drawing up European Union policy and there is increasingly less debate on this within the EU today”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian public media during the informal two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers that began on Friday afternoon in Bratislava.

“The fact that the issue of security must come before all others is the result of the state of affairs according to which thanks to migration the threat of terrorism has become extremely high, crime has increased and the number of violent acts against women has also increased”, Hungary’s chief diplomat said.

“Added to the ongoing war in our eastern neighbourhood, the result is that it is no longer an exaggeration to state that the security situation in Europe is in crisis; Europe is facing a security crisis”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, emphasising that accordingly security must be the priority criteria that determines the drawing up of European policies.

According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, improving the security situation in Europe requires the realisation of five ideas, the first of which is the establishment of a joint European army. “Great Britain’s exiting of the EU means that the European pillar of NATO will be somewhat weakened and beginning preparations for the establishment of a joint European army would serve to strengthen that pillar to some extent”, he explained.

With relation to the second point, Mr. Szijjártó said: “Since a joint European strategy on protecting the EU’s external borders has still not been established, Brussels should ‘leave alone’ those countries that are taking steps to protect their own borders. “My Bulgarian counterpart has announced that Bulgaria will continue construction of its fence along the Bulgarian-Turkish border and we are building another fence along the Serbian border”, Mr. Szijjártó said, recalling the announcement made during the meeting.

The Foreign Minister pointed to the ceasing of criticism of the Turkish administration with relation to the attempted coup in Turkey and subsequent disciplinary action as the third idea designed to improve the security situation in Europe. “Those who attack the current, democratically elected Turkish government and its President are in fact attacking the security of Europe (…) because if Turkey is not stable and becomes incapable of stemming the wave of migration then it will reappear at Europe’s southern borders”, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out. “The fourth step must be to support those Middle Eastern and North African countries that are still or partly stable and that are capable of stopping immigrants who set out from them or arrive via them”, he added. According to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, as a fifth step the expansion of the EU must be continued in the direction of the Western Balkans since “increasingly worrying developments” are being seen in the region. “The only path towards the stability of the Western Balkans is the path of EU integration, and accordingly EU enlargement must be accelerated”, he stressed.

In addition to the European Union’s global security strategy and EU-Turkish relations, topics of discussion at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bratislava also included the situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk Protocol aimed at solving it, with relation to which Mr. Szijjártó said: “There has been no recent progress with relation to the Minsk protocol and accordingly the EU will have no choice but to confront its past decisions and analyse without hypocrisy whether the sanctions introduced against Russia have in fact achieved the required results and what damage the sanctions have caused to the European economy”.

Delegations from several countries that are hoping to join the European Union (Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Turkey) have also been invited to attend the two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers on Saturday. The main topic of Saturday’s negotiations will be the fight against terrorism, including measures to prevent radicalisation and the spread of extremism. On the second day of talks, EU diplomats will also meet with their counterparts from the countries of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova).

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)