“The Visegrád Group is the closest and most effective alliance within the European Union today”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said.

Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s “Sunday Paper” programme on Sunday morning, Mr. Szijjártó said: “The Visegrád Group has brought a historic level of peace to the region, as also confirmed by the diplomatic gestures of recent years”.

“This indicates that the Visegrád alliance is currently in the best shape ever”, he said, adding “precisely at the right time, because there is currently a great need for cooperation between the countries of Central Europe, for instance because of the challenges facing the European Union”.

With relation to the standpoint of the V4 (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), the Hungarian Foreign Minister said that in their view strong European integration can only be founded on strong member states. “Relocating further spheres of authority to Brussels is out of the question because the good responses to the undoubtedly major recent challenges have been made at member state level and accordingly as many important decision-making competencies must be kept at member state level”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

According to the Foreign Minister: “From the perspective of the future of the European Union it is essential to continue expansion, to re-establish pragmatic relations with Russia in view of economic interests, and to search for external allies”.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)