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At a joint press conference of the two prime ministers, in the context of the upcoming Hungarian EU presidency, Mr Orbán said Hungary wants to table an overarching plan, a European competitiveness pact because it is convinced that at this point in time, Europe’s biggest problem is the decline of its competitiveness.
He stressed that unless they concluded a European competitiveness pact, jobs in the hundreds of thousands could be lost in the coming decade.
Both the Italians and Hungarians have a vested interest in the European economy being successful and competitive, Mr Orbán said, adding that further shared interests are that Europe should not isolate itself from economic partners outside Europe, European industry should be strong, and the green transition should not be contrary to the best interests of European industry, but should be implemented in cooperation with it.
The Hungarian Prime Minister also said Italian-Hungarian cooperation is significant both in the economy and in defence policy, and they want to extend this to the field of energy as well. He announced that there will be a Slovenian gas pipeline section, and as a result, Italy and Hungary will be connected together; Italian LNG terminals constitute a major source of diversification for Hungary compared with supply from the East.
He recalled that Slovenia had not previously consented to the connecting together of Italy and Hungary with a pipeline.
Regarding Italian-Hungarian economic relations, he highlighted that Italy was Hungary’s fifth most significant trade partner, trade between the two countries had doubled in the past 10 years, while exports had broken a new record last year. He expressed his gratitude for the fact that there are as many as 600 Italian companies in Hungary, providing jobs for some 20,000 people.
The Hungarian Prime Minister also spoke about two Italian-Hungarian developments: one of them is the development of the port of Trieste, while the other one is a joint logistic project in Ukraine.
He described defence cooperation between the two countries as strong, stressing that among the military forces stationed in Hungary, Italians are present in the largest number, 256 Italian soldiers form part of NATO’s forward battalion battle group deployed in Hungary. He added that Italian and Hungarian soldiers also worked together in the Balkans.
In the context of the EU integration of the Western Balkans, he said it is shameful and unacceptable that these countries have waited for more than 15 years to become members. We should say either yes or no, but should stop the present state of affairs, he observed.
Speaking about illegal migration, Mr Orbán reassured the Italian Prime Minister of his support of her proposal regarding a comprehensive European Africa development strategy. He mentioned that according to their calculations, in the next 20 years, the population of Africa will increase by 750 million, meaning that there will be a population growth twice the size of the entire population of the European Union.
In his view, in this situation there are two options: either there will be a European Africa development plan with which to “keep the Africans at home,” or there will be “mass migration on a scale” against which Europe will not be able to defend itself.
Regarding the distribution of positions in Brussels, Mr Orbán said it is wrong that the institutions of the EU are placed on a party political basis, and indicated that he is unable to support “a party agreement” on the assignment of positions.
He recalled that he – as the longest-serving prime minister in the EU – saw “what went wrong and when,” and in his view, “European problems are rooted” in the fact that after the 2014 EP elections, the then president of the European Commission wanted to turn the commission that was previously a politically neutral organisation into a political body. This process has been ongoing ever since and is causing ever more problems, he stressed.
He took the view that what is now in the making – that three parties “constituting a quasi-coalition” distribute the most important European offices – is the very opposite of the earlier “philosophy of involvement” and places the EU’s institutions on a party political basis. This has the consequence that there will be a majority and a minority, there will be a government and an opposition, Mr Orbán said, adding that in his opinion the EU was “invented not for this,” but for involvement.
Everyone must be involved, we must not allow any country to feel that they are in a minority, in opposition in the EU. Both philosophically and strategically, this is a flawed path that the EU should not go down, he said.
Mr Orbán also said he did not discuss party issues with the Italian Prime Minister who as President of the right-wing government party Brothers of Italy (FdI) is also the leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) in the European Parliament. They concluded these talks last Monday in Brussels.
The President of Fidesz made it clear that they will not be in the same party alliance with an “anti-Hungarian” Romanian party. There is nothing to talk about as a matter of course, we are unable to join such a group, he confirmed.
At the same time, he indicated that last Monday he and Giorgia Meloni agreed that they were both committed to promoting cooperation among European right-wing parties even if they were not in the same parliamentary group.
