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The Prime Minister identified North Macedonia’s EU accession as the most important topic of the cabinet meeting.
The position of Hungary holding the EU presidency in the second half of the year is known: the stability of the entire Western Balkans region and its integration into the European Union is in the bests interests of not only Hungary, but of the whole of the European Union, he stated.
In his words, enlargement is not a problem, not a challenge; it is an enormous opportunity also for the countries which are already inside the EU. The EU has lost its dynamic as regards economic growth, and enlargement is one of the evident solutions for regaining this, he argued.
We are not happy that Ukraine and Moldova have been afforded – out of purely geopolitical considerations – “fast track” treatment and the merit-based approach has been utterly sidelined, he observed.
Mr Orbán said it is unfair and unjust that countries which have worked for years in order to be allowed to enter the EU on a merit basis have now been relegated.
The number one priority of the Hungarian presidency is to keep the EU integration of the Western Balkans on the agenda, he pointed out, adding that he would like to accelerate the integration process of North Macedonia.
To this end, Mr Orbán suggested holding a chapter opening intergovernmental conference, or in the absence of this a political intergovernmental conference.
He recalled that North Macedonia had become a member candidate back in 2005 together with Croatia. Since then, Croatia has been admitted to the EU, however, the talks with North Macedonia have not even started.
This is a mistake on an historic scale on the part of the EU. Additionally, this mistake can be aggravated further as now the plan is that accession talks with even Albania will start sooner. There is no moral or political reason of any kind for this, he warned.
The Hungarian Prime Minister recalled that he had met with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski for the eighteenth time now; his party VMRO and the Hungarian governing parties are sister parties. Stressing that party affairs can never be confused with state affairs, he pointed out that it was always good when two friendly parties were in government, and he invited Mr Mickoski and members of his government to Hungary.
Mr Orbán also recalled that he was an official guest in North Macedonia after more than a decade at a time when the two countries celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Regarding bilateral cooperation, he spoke about the Hungarian assistance which North Macedonia received in stopping the wildfires that raged here in the summer.
This was in return for the help that the Hungarian people received from North Macedonia especially in 2015-2016 in the fight against migration. It was then that the Hungarians truly understood that North Macedonia is not only a friendly and kind country, but is also important from the viewpoint of Hungarian security as it is situated on the route of illegal migration.
“If you don’t protect your borders, we have to take up that same fight on the Serbian-Hungarian border,” he said, promising the North Macedonian government all the help they may need.
He also recalled that 2,400 Hungarian police officers had served at the southern border of North Macedonia, preventing 17,000 illegal border crossings.
This is another reason why Hungary is also ready to engage in financial cooperation, and looks upon any loan to be extended to North Macedonia – should Skopje need such assistance – as a kind of investment in Hungary’s security, he said, also offering economic cooperation.
He added that Hungary further provided scholarships for students from North Macedonia.
In answer to a journalist’s question, Mr Orbán highlighted that migration was an issue which would continue to stay with us in the coming decades. If anyone believes that this can be “removed from the agenda,” they are wrong as there is a profound demographic rearrangement behind this, he warned.
The demographic capacity of the northern shores of the Mediterranean falls far behind the capacity of the southern shores, and migration stems from this imbalance which is aggravated by the expected population explosion in Africa, he observed.
In his words, if we fail to provide help for the countries of the Sahel region, hundreds of millions will reach the Mediterranean. This, too, shows that our cooperation on the issue is not for a year or two, but for forty to fifty years, he said.
Mr Orbán welcomed the fact that the Western Balkans is populated by people to whom history has taught this lesson. “Therefore, we must forge a strategic alliance against illegal migration at the right time and to the right depth, this is what I’m working on all the way from Greece to Serbia and Hungary,” he said.
He added that it would be good to also involve Western Europeans in this alliance, but as they do not protect their borders, migration will “stab us in the back” from the West in twenty or thirty years’ time.
If we want our nations and our cultural identity, including Christianity, to survive we must protect ourselves and must find the countries which can be partners in this, Mr Orbán said, mentioning North Macedonia and Serbia as examples.
In answer to the question of the Hungarian news agency MTI, Mr Orbán said on the issue of migration Europe is “in a state of duplicity.” The countries of the West placed their bets on Willkommenskultur, they believe that they can profit from migration, and therefore rather than preventing it, they want to manage it, he observed.
We have always had doubts about this, he said, adding that other larger countries have nonetheless opted for a different course. The bitter fruits of this choice are now ripening, they should change their policy, but it is not so easy, he warned.
In his words, countries in the West are currently in the phase of “changing tracks,” “but I have never had any doubt that sooner or later they will arrive in our street where we will await them,” he said.
In answer to a question related to North Macedonian-Bulgarian relations, he said at this point in time, reaching an agreement with Bulgaria appears to be the most important next station of North Macedonia’s accession process.
Mr Orbán indicated, however, that he had a proposal regarding this, and that Hungary was ready to conduct talks about this with Bulgaria should the parties require this.
He added that North Macedonia had received multiple empty promises regarding the date of admission and the date of talks, “but those who applied at the same time are making progress, while they’re not,” he said in reference to Albania’s faster progress in the EU accession process.
One cannot see the past ten years in any other light than that North Macedonia has been continually relegated, he recalled, adding that “you should have been allowed to join a long time ago.”
The Hungarian Prime Minister said it is a mistake that North Macedonia is still not a member of the EU and that it has been repeatedly detached from talks which are about to begin with another member candidate. This mistake can be remedied in such a way that talks with North Macedonia must begin before the end of the year, he stated.
In answer to a question, he pointed out that Hungary would not provide Chinese loans for North Macedonia, given that those loans had been provided for specific Hungarian developments. “We’re unable to offer Chinese money, European money, that we can offer,” he added.
He stressed, however, that from a Hungarian point of view, the economy was the second most important question because security – meaning migration – was in the number one spot. We have more deep-rooted and more robust economic cooperation with those who play an important role in Hungary’s security, he indicated.
Answering a question related to the US presidential election, Mr Orbán said “already in 2015-2016 we were President Trump’s supporters,” adding that in Hungary there is a rule, based on which we only interfere in the election campaigns of other countries as much as they interfere in ours. “In the case of the United States, this gives us plenty of opportunities,” he observed.
However, he drew attention to the fact that the entire western elite lives in an excessively sealed, bubble-like world, and so we need outsiders because “people from the East are fast emerging, and they’re coming with a straight back and big biceps.”
He also warned that the United States plays a key role in world peace, and so if there is a pro-peace and strong president, then there is peace in the world. If the president is pro-war or weak, then there is disorder and war.
Donald Trump has already been president, and during his time in office the world was a safer place, Mr Orbán said, stressing that “we need peace, we need a president who brings peace.”
