The four countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) assured the Western Balkan countries of their support for their earliest possible integration into the European Union at a meeting in Prague on Thursday.
“The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are convinced that the EU accession of these countries will contribute to the stability and security of the region and the European Union”, Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček said at the press conference following the meeting. European Commissioner for Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi, who also took part in the meeting, declared: “It is in the strategic interests of the EU to expand its ranks with the Balkan countries”. “The Western Balkans are surrounded by European Union member states. It is in our strategic interests to bring the region into the EU”, the Commissioner said, adding that the new Commission regards this as one of its priority tasks.
“Bringing the Western Balkan region closer to the European Union and preparing for their future accession has always been one of Hungary’s priorities”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Parliamentary State Secretary Levente Magyar told Hungarian news agency MTI following the talks, explaining that the goal of the meeting was to review the most important tasks relating to the EU accession of the Western Balkan region. He emphasised that the region’s accession is primarily a question of security for Hungary. “We would like to live in safety, and we would like our neighbours to also live in safety, and resolving any open issues relating to the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries is vital to achieving this”, Mr. Magyar explained.
He told the press that Hungary is also supporting integration from the perspective of the Hungarian economy, since neighbouring countries are “the natural and closest areas of expansion for strong Hungarian enterprises”. “Maintaining good neighbourly relations is also an important aspect, and has a national security dimension in view of the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of Hungarians living in the region in question”, the State Secretary said. “Hungary is already providing major assistance to cross-border Hungarians, but could do even more for them if their countries were members of the European Union”, he added.
Mr. Magyar said Serbia is a key country, explaining that Hungarian-Serbian relations have developed extremely well over the past ten years, and further increasing the intensity of cooperation is a common interest. “It is in Hungary’s interests for all six Western Balkan countries to be able to become part of the European Union as soon as possible”, the State Secretary said, explaining that the integration of the whole Western Balkan region is vital to the security and vitality of Europe. “When each state joins the EU is a minor detail”, he added.
“It is Hungary’s extremely determined recommendation that the countries that are furthest ahead in the accession process, meaning Serbia and Montenegro, should be able to join the EU by the middle of this decade”, the State Secretary said. “Now that Olivér Várhelyi has become the European Union’s Commissioner for Enlargement, major progress and a qualitative change has occurred with relation to the issue. Olivér Várhelyi duly submitted the necessary proposals last week. The countries of the V4 are helping to ensure that the political obstacles relating to the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries are removed as quickly as possible”, Mr. Magyar noted. Following their meeting in Prague, the participants signed an agreement on cooperation between the International Visegrád Fund and the Western Balkan Fund. The Western Balkan Fund was established by the Visegrád Group in 2015 in the interests of assisting the Balkan countries. The International Visegrád Fund has been operating since 2000, and its main mission is to fund regional cooperation projects between the countries of the Visegrád Group.
(MTI)
