During a lecture in Berlin on Wednesday before the leaders of Germany’s largest corporations, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that 2018 is a crucial year for Europe . “Now is the time to defend the Schengen system if we want to preserve and even increase our competitiveness”, he stressed according to a statement issued to Hungarian news agency MTI by the Prime Minister’s Press Chief, Bertalan Havasi.

“Central Europe must make progress with relation to significant handicaps within the field of infrastructure. We need resources to construct new roads and pipelines. If the European Union cannot provide funding, we will turn to China”, Mr. Orbán said.

According to Mr. Havasi, the Prime Minister also highlighted the fact that the countries of the Visegrád group (V4) are growing extremely dynamically and by 2030 are expected to catch up to Western industrial nations and become net contributors to the EU budget.

“In 2030, the European Union will in the most part be financed by Germany and the countries of the V4”, he said.

With relation to the migration crisis, the Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that 2018 must be the year of the enforcement of the will of the people in Europe, also citing the importance of protecting the EU’s external borders.

“The annual turnover of the enterprises that took part in the WWG (Welt-Wirtschaftsgipfel -World Economic Summit) conference exceeds 800 billion euros, about double Hungary’s gross domestic product (GDP)”, Mr. Havasi told the press. “Together they employ some 3 million people”, he added.

This year, the forum’s main speaker and guest of honour was Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In the previous year the WWG’s guest was French politician Emmanuel Macron, who was subsequently elected President of France in the spring of 2017.

(MTI)