Hungary continues to take action against anti-Semitism, and makes every effort to stop the spread of hatred against Jewish communities which can be clearly detected in Europe as well, Szabolcs Takács pointed out in Bucharest where he attended a meeting organised by the Romanian Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Romania took over the Chairmanship of IHRA from Hungary in March. The Hungarian Government continues to regard the organisation’s objectives and the efforts to curb anti-Semitism through education as an important duty, and carries on the content of this commitment, Szabolcs Takács, who was in charge of the Hungarian Chairmanship of IHRA as a ministerial commissioner, told the Hungarian News Agency MTI.

„The Holocaust was one of the great tragedies in the history of the Hungarian nation, in addition to the many tragedies of the 20th century. There is no point in relativising which tragedy was greater or lesser: each of them was extremely grave. We lost 600,000 fellow-Hungarians during the Holocaust who earlier did a great deal for Hungary’s social and economic advancement”, Mr Takács said.

Upon handing over its IHRA Chairmanship, Hungary suggested to the Romanian party that they should jointly refurbish the Kolozsvár Synagogue. „There is a beautiful cross-border example for this kind of cooperation: the refurbishment of the Szabadka Synagogue built in the Secession style is ongoing also at present from joint funding provided by the Serbian and Hungarian Governments”, the State Secretary reiterated, adding: it is a message in itself if two neighbouring countries are able to cooperate on an issue such as this.

On the occasion of his visit to Bucharest, Mr Takács met with Secretary of State for European Affairs Cristian Badescu, and informed his Romanian partner, inter alia, of the ten-point package of proposals called Schengen 2.0 which was put together by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in April.

The meeting confirmed: the package summarising the duties of EU Member States has a number of points on which the Romanian and the Hungarian Governments share similar views. Romania, too, is opposed to the distribution of migrants on the basis of mandatory quotas, and similar to Hungary, Romania is also a beneficiary of the cohesion funds. At the same time, the social dimension of European integration is likewise equally important for both parties: both Romania and Hungary have a vested interest in maintaining the free movement of European workers as well as free movement for businesses and services, the State Secretary highlighted.

Mr Takács further stressed: in order to achieve a European Energy Union, it is essential to connect together the networks of neighbouring countries with a view to enhancing the energy security of the Member States. The Hungarian party therefore indicated also on this occasion: it is expecting specific action on the part of Bucharest in the interest of making the Hungarian-Romanian interconnector a two-way gas pipeline. At this point in time, the interconnector built between the two countries only permits Romania to receive gas from Hungary.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)