Deputy State Secretary for EU Affairs Balázs Molnár attended a panel discussion organised by the Hungarian Embassy in Prague within the framework of the Prague European Summit, following which he held bilateral talks with Jan Král, head of the European Policies Coordination Department of the Czech Prime Minister’s Office.

During the panel discussion, Mr. Molnár showcased the achievements of the Hungarian Presidency of the Visegrád Group (V4), which ends on 1 July, highlighting the most important stops of the work performed with relation to the Presidency’s priorities: European Visegrád, Regional Visegrád, Digital Visegrád and Global Visegrád. The Deputy State Secretary and Mr. Král agreed that the countries of the Visegrád Group had put forward constructive proposals not only with relation to the migration crisis, but also in the interests of solving the challenges face by the European Union.

During their bilateral meeting, Mr. Molnár indicated with relation to the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF) that in Hungary’s opinion it is unrealistic for an agreement to be reached prior to the European Union elections in 2019. Mr. Král said the Czech Republic’s position corresponds with Hungary’s for the most part. According to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the current budget proposal is unfair, and the Czech Government agrees that rapid decision-making is unrealistic and would only have a negative effect. Mr. Král explained that according to the Czech position a positive narrative must be applied: Western European public opinion must understand that it cannot be in their interests to reduce EU funding. Mr. Molnár stressed the importance of expanding the Friends of Cohesion partnership.

With relation to migration the parties discussed the issues raised at the “mini summit” convened by Commission President Juncker for June 24. The Deputy State Secretary explained the Hungarian position, according to which instead of mandatory resettlement, the EU should be concentrating on border protection.

With relation to the Mobility Package, Mr. Molnár informed his Czech counterpart about the opinion consistently represented by the Hungarian Government. Mr. Král indicated that the Czech Government is working in close cooperation with Czech MEPs with relation to the issue. Concerning the indexing of family allowances, the parties agreed that the idea is unacceptable.

((Prime Minister’s Office))