Hungary will not stand in the way of any constructive agreement regarding the possible further extension of the deadline for the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union if this gives a chance for Britain’s settled exit with an agreement, Szabolcs Takács, Minister of State of the Prime Minister’s Office told Hungarian journalists in an interview given by telephone on Tuesday.

Mr Takács attended the Luxembourg meeting of Member State ministers responsible for European affairs whose main agenda item was the preparation of the Wednesday special EU summit on Brexit.

The government believes it is important to avoid a “hard Brexit” and to develop the closest possible relations between the parties in the future, he highlighted.

He added that Britain’s exit is a very negative process, in the wake of which the EU itself will be the poorer, but the will of the British people must be respected.

He said the rights of Hungarian nationals living in the United Kingdom will not be curtailed in the event of any scenario, this was the number one consideration for the Hungarian government.

He also spoke about the May European parliamentary (EP) elections, the stakes of which are no less than “whether Brussels bureaucrats can tell us how to be good Europeans, and whether nation states can retain the right to decide on their future, and to preserve their social system and sovereignty”.

The Minister of State for EU Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office underlined that Hungary has a vested interest in the next EP having an anti-immigration majority as the government “would like to create a strong European Union which is based on strong nation states, not on the further extension of Brussels bureaucracy”.

(MTI)