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Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. If you allow me, I would like to speak Hungarian. When we arrive to the question–answer section probably we can use the English as well.
I welcome you all. I’m here in Strasbourg to present the programme of the Hungarian Presidency to the European Parliament tomorrow. And we thought that since the usual parliamentary verbal brawling and jostling tomorrow might distract attention from the essence of the Presidency programme, it would be useful if we could present the Hungarian Presidency’s programme to the international press separately. Thank you for honouring us with your presence.
First of all, I’d like to remind you that Hungary has held this office since 1 July. This is the second time we’ve undertaken this task since 2011, this is the second Hungarian Presidency, and this is the second time I personally have led this work. And, because optimism is important, I’ve already entered the third date in my diary. Looking back at the first Presidency, it was also held in a time of crisis, with the aftermath of the financial crisis, and we also needed to deal with the consequences of the Arab Spring and the Fukushima disaster. So that wasn’t an easy period either. But in summary I can tell you that the situation in the EU today is much more serious than it was in 2011. What do we see today? Firstly, there’s a war raging in Ukraine – in other words, in Europe. There are major conflicts in the Middle East, the effects of which we are feeling. There are major conflicts in Africa, which we’re also feeling the consequences of. And today every international conflict is in danger of escalating. The migration crisis has reached proportions not seen since 2015. Dangers to security threaten to paralyse and break apart the Schengen Area. If I’ve correctly read the news you provide, today the Swedes announced that they’re suspending the Schengen rules on free movement. And meanwhile Europe…
Perhaps a sentence of explanation about Hungarian political culture is needed here. Hungarian is a direct language, and the communication is rather unrefined. When one Hungarian politician calls another a bastard, in our culture all it means is that they disagree.
Back to the programme of the Hungarian Presidency. So meanwhile, amidst migration and threats of war, Europe is steadily losing its global competitiveness. These are not the words of the Hungarian Presidency, but Mario Draghi. Quoting from his report, Europe is threatened by “a slow agony”. A few days ago President Macron said that Europe could die, because it’s being squeezed out of its markets. Compared to Mario Draghi and Emmanuel Macron, I am a moderate prime minister, but I also see the decline of European competitiveness as the most serious challenge we must address. So this is the situation in which the Hungarian presidency is carrying out its work. Now my task is to present to the European Parliament what Hungary is proposing in this situation.
The Hungarian position is that we can only overcome these problems if we change. Therefore the European Union must change. And through the work of our Presidency we want to be the catalyst for this change. Due to the size of our country, the Hungarian Presidency can raise problems and make proposals. So we’re as big as we are, while Germany or France are influential enough to solve one problem or another without assistance. We can highlight problems, we can make proposals, and the European institutions and the big states will be the ones which ultimately need to take the decisions.
Having said this, I’d like to say a few words about the goals of the Hungarian Presidency. Our work will be centred on improving European competitiveness. For two decades now our economic growth has been consistently slower than that of the United States or China. Our share of world trade has been falling. A company in the European Union has to pay two to three times more for electricity than a company in the United States, and four to five times more for natural gas. Our businesses, European businesses, spend half as much as the Americans on research and development. And added to this are the adverse demographic trends. And although I can see why there are a number of European governments that want to counter population decline through migration, the maths doesn’t not add up: migration is unable to make up for the missing unborn children. What this means economically is that if we want to be competitive, we need to reckon with the fact that for the first time ever we are in a situation in which European GDP growth is not supported by a continuous increase in the size of the workforce. This means that improving economic productivity is twice as important as it was earlier, because productivity improvements need to exceed the rate of growth in the US. This is why we want to host an informal meeting of European leaders in Budapest on 8 November, when we must adopt a new European competitiveness pact. We’re at the beginning of an institutional cycle, the beginning of a five-year cycle, and with such a pact all European leaders and countries could commit to a long-term five-year competitiveness policy. This would include the following elements. The reduction of administrative burdens. The reduction of over-regulation. affordable energy prices. A green industrial policy, meaning that we not only need a green transition, but we need to harmonise it with a European industrial policy. Strengthening the internal market. Removing barriers to the movement of goods and services. According to the Draghi Report, these rules alone account for a 10 per cent reduction in European GDP. We propose the implementation of a capital market union, because today the savings of the European people end up in the United States, and the European capital market is unable to keep the money of Europeans here in Europe.
And finally, connectivity is part of what we are proposing in our pact. I need only draw your attention to the absurdity of the European decision against Chinese electric cars, which is currently under discussion. We have twenty-seven Member States, ten of which supported imposing punitive tariffs and seventeen did not. Some abstained, some voted against, but only ten supported them. And if I look at the ten states, they represent only 45 per cent of the European Union’s total population – so this isn’t even supported by the majority of people. And this is the reason I call the situation absurd. A protective tariff can make sense. I am not doctrinaire: a sensible protective tariff – even if only temporary, and the consequences of which we can examine – can make sense. But what is absurd is a protective tariff – which is intended to protect an industry – being resisted by European car manufacturers, who are supposed to be protected by this protective tariff. And still the Commission wants to introduce it! What is this? This isn’t a protective tariff, it’s something else. A protective tariff is something that protects our own domestic industry – which meanwhile is fighting tooth and nail against this “protection”. This is about something else: it’s not about a protective tariff, but an act is aggression.
On the issue of migration, the view of the Hungarian Presidency is that the external borders of the European Union must be defended, and that defence work by the frontline countries defends the whole of Europe – their work should be recognised and their defence work should be supported. I’m not revealing any secrets when I say that for quite a long time I’ve been standing – almost up to my chest – in the political bloodbath of the migration debate. At the very beginning we built the fence, and stopped migration. I’ve been saying the same thing since 2015, and I say it now. We can try all sorts of packages and migration pacts, and this dimension and that dimension, but there’s only one way to stop migration and bring it under control: the key word here, the magic word – or what’s now called the “innovative solution” – is the external hotspot, the outside hotspot. We must agree that anyone who wants to enter the territory of the EU must stop at the border of the EU and submit an entry request, and until it is positively assessed, that person cannot enter the territory of the EU. If we cannot achieve this, we will never stop migration. This is the only option. Today Hungary is being punished for doing just this. Once someone has entered the territory of the EU, once they’re already here and have rights, the civil rights of someone residing in the territory of the EU, they’ll never leave the territory of the EU – even if they haven’t received permission to stay. And I don’t know of any government that would want to forcibly round up such people, pack them into some vehicle or other, and then try to – or be able to – remove them from the territory of the EU. That will never happen, that’s an illusion! The only migrants who won’t stay here are those we don’t let in. And illegal migration will only stop if everyone that we want to let in is allowed in with a permit before they enter, and not with the legal alternatives that arise after entry. Ever since 2015, for taking this position I’ve been continually called either idiotic or evil. I’ve not been left with much of a choice, but be aware that eventually everyone will end up at this point: in the end there will be a consensus in the EU that we must introduce external hotspots, and only let in those who have been given prior permission. It’s clear that now the EU asylum system isn’t working. Illegal migration into Europe has resulted in growing anti-Semitism, an increase in violence against women, and rising homophobia. These are consequences of migration. Since we don’t have a successful collective migration policy, the Member States are individually trying to defend themselves: Austria, Germany, Sweden; and all respect to the new French interior minister, who’s making efforts. But these individual attempts will actually break apart the Schengen system. We need a grand collective decision. And so the Hungarian Presidency has a proposal. The Hungarian Presidency’s proposal is that we should introduce a system of Schengen summits on the model of the Euro summits. Just as the leaders of the countries belonging to the eurozone regularly meet here so that they can manage the euro, we should also jointly manage the Schengen borders at the highest political level.
The third important topic of the Hungarian Presidency, after competitiveness and migration, is European security and defence policy. We’re proposing steps to create a European defence industry and to strengthen the technological base. This will also be discussed in Budapest on 7 November.
The fourth important point of our Presidency is enlargement policy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Europe will never be complete without the integration of the Balkans. Twenty years ago we promised the countries of the Western Balkans that we would admit them. It is time to deliver on this. This is why the Hungarian Presidency has also convened a summit of the European Union and the Western Balkan countries. The Western Balkans include several countries, and enlargement must be merit-based, but allow me to make a geopolitical comment: no enlargement will be successful without Serbia. So the countries of the Western Balkans cannot be integrated without Serbia. Anyone who thinks this is possible is delusional. Serbia is a country of such influence, weight and power that without it the Balkans cannot be stabilised. We also need to reach an agreement with Serbia, and we also want to make progress on this during the Hungarian Presidency.
The Hungarian Presidency is also addressing agriculture. The reason for this is that although we’re still only in the middle of the current seven-year budget period for 2021–27, we have already started the process of planning the budget – and the directions it will take – for the seven years after 2027. And we’ve begun to set the direction for agricultural policy in the next seven-year budget. Hungary also wants to participate in this debate during its Presidency, so that we can create a competitive, crisis-resistant and farmer-friendly European agricultural sector.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is the essence of the Hungarian Presidency. If we achieve all of this, the motto of the Hungarian Presidency will also become a reality: “Make Europe Great Again!”
These are our plans. Thank you for listening, and I’ll be pleased to answer any questions you have.
