“There is a new political situation on the continent; the status quo has been disrupted following the European Parliament (EP) elections”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in the recess of a meeting of EU ministers discussing international trade issues in Brussels on Monday.

At his press conference, the Minister reported on the fact that a new situation has definitely come about in view of the fact that during the upcoming term it will no longer be sufficient for the leaders of the two largest party groups, the People’s Party and the Social Democrats, to get together and conclude their own agreements, and the main dividing lines will no longer be between party families, but concerning concrete issues, and particularly migration.

He pointed out that huge debates will begin from today within the European Union, primarily with relation to the posts to be filled, and then policy issues.

He stressed that the Hungarian Government does not regard any of the top candidates as being suitable to be the President of the European Commission, but hopes that suitable persons will arise during the course of negotiations.

Mr. Szijjártó said it was important for the Central European region, which provides the engine of European growth, to also be represented with sufficient weight among the European Union’s leading officials, and underlined that Hungary will only support candidates “that believe in a strong EU built on strong member states, and are prepared to give priority to Christian culture, and who want to stop migration, not organise it”.

“Excluding the Maltese governing party, Fidesz won the EU elections with the greatest majority, followed by other strongly anti-immigration parties such as Law end Justice (PiS), the Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) and the Italian Northern League party”, he highlighted.

He added the Fidesz was by far the most successful member of the European People’s Party in addition to providing the third highest number of MEPs, and in his opinion this fact should be taken into account during debates on the party family’s future political line.

The Minister also spoke about the topic of the meeting, stressing that due to its nature the outbreak of any kind of trade war and the introduction of any restrictive measures goes against Hungary’s interests. “Hungary is competitive, and accordingly it is also in its interests for the global economy to be as free as possible; it has nothing to fear in this regard”, he stated.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion the EU is not capable of adapting rapidly enough to the continuous changes occurring within the global economy, and consequently major reforms will be necessary. He said it is impossible that it takes many long years to conclude and implement certain free trade agreements, when in fact the number of such agreements needs to be significantly increased.

With relation to the transatlantic trade conflict, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said the EU official responsible reported on the fact that Washington has no intention of entering into negotiations on breaking down industrial tariffs, which in Mr. Szijjártó’s opinion is bad news, but not surprising in view of the fact that this was also mentioned by the U.S. President, “who is famous for implementing his election promises”.

“There should have been less hysteria at the beginning, then we might be in a better situation”, he said, underlining the fact that negotiations must be conducted in such a manner that they don’t worsen relations.

(MTI)