Menu
Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. Honourable Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, Dear Friend,
We are here to conclude six months of very close cooperation between us. In July the Prime Minister was kind enough to welcome me here. At that time we agreed that during the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union we would proceed according to a joint plan, and we set the goal of Romania joining the Schengen Area during the Hungarian Presidency. This was a very difficult task. We engaged in a lot of discussion on whether it was realistic this year, as it had not happened over the previous thirteen years. It could have happened thirteen years ago, but up until now it had not. So here we had to implement a political initiative together with the Prime Minister that suddenly took this thirteen-year period from failure to success. So we drew up a work plan, and we identified the countries that were opposed to enlargement. We discussed the methods and cooperation we could use to convince them that this was a historic opportunity, and we implemented this jointly developed action plan; and we arrived at the point at which something is finally happening that few would have thought could be achieved during the Hungarian Presidency. What this very clearly shows is that our two countries have a historic common destiny, and we both know that the success of one country is not enough in itself: in order to be successful you also need your neighbour to be successful. We Hungarians have long had an interest in Romania being with us in the Schengen Area, and enjoying its benefits together with us. This has now happened. So I am here to thank the Prime Minister for the work we have been able to do together over the past six months. We are talking about something that you have no experience of yet, because you are not yet with any of us countries in the Schengen Area. These figures that the Prime Minister has given us are also in our studies, showing how this will improve economic performance, how it will increase trade, how it will increase GDP, and so on. But I can tell you that when we lifted the barriers at the Austrian–Hungarian border, and later at the Slovak–Hungarian border, at the Slovenian–Hungarian border, and most recently at the Croatian–Hungarian border, not only was the economy boosted, but the quality, fabric and structure of life in the region changed. So I think that seen from Bucharest and Budapest we are not even able to accurately measure the importance of this change for the Romanian and Hungarian people living in the border regions.
I want to highlight two small facts to help you understand the seriousness of this. Today there are twelve border crossings by road between Romania and Hungary. On 1 January this number will increase to twenty-two, because what was previously only partially usable will now be freely usable. When people living in a settlement have wanted to cross over to a neighbouring settlement, they have had to travel an average of thirty-seven kilometres, using the nearest road border crossing point. This will now be halved, to about twenty kilometres. This will mean a lot for the people living there. It is a very big advantage. Life there will be reorganised, much more organically and healthily than it has been, because a border has been an obstacle to closer cooperation in everyday life. I believe in what the Prime Minister has said, that this is an opportunity for a new era in relations between our two countries. The foundations for this are now in place, because we enjoy shared success.
In addition, as you have heard, Hungary is an important country for Romania from an economic point of view, and Romania is extremely important for Hungary from an energy security point of view. Last year we were able to buy 1.75 billion cubic metres of gas through you, and this, together with the gas coming through the South Stream pipeline, has essentially solved Hungary’s energy needs. I would also like to thank the Prime Minister for this. Moreover, from Hungary’s point of view Romania is a reliable transit country for the delivery of nuclear fuel. And the more that energy cooperation operating through Ukraine is paralysed, the greater the importance for Hungary of cooperation with Romania. So today we also talked about the future, because in these strategic sectors we would like to see even deeper cooperation between our two countries. From the Hungarian side, I can say that Hungary wants to continue and deepen cooperation with Romania.
Prime Minister, once again I thank you very much for this opportunity of joint success.
