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Mr Orbán recalled that he had agreed with his Romanian counterpart to proceed during the Hungarian presidency of the European Union according to a common plan and had set out to achieve that Romania join the Schengen Area during the Hungarian presidency. This was a very difficult task as “we had much discussion about whether it was realistic at all that this should happen this year as it hadn’t happened for thirteen years previously,” he said, adding that it could have happened 13 years ago, but it had not.
The Hungarian Prime Minister pointed out that they had been required to implement a political campaign which “suddenly turned this phase of 13 years of lack of success into success.”
Mr Orbán said they prepared an action plan, identified the countries which were opposed to enlargement, and then in cooperation convinced them of the inherent historic opportunity. Few would have thought that Romania’s accession could be achieved during the Hungarian presidency of all presidencies which “very strongly indicates that the two countries have a shared historical fate, and we both know that the success of one country in itself is not enough; in order for one country to be successful it also needs its neighbour’s success,” he added.
The Hungarian Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that “when we lifted the barriers at the Austrian-Hungarian border, later at the Slovak-Hungarian border, later still at the Slovenian-Hungarian border and most recently at the Croatian-Hungarian border,” not only the economy gained momentum, but the quality, the fabric, the structure of life in the given regions also changed. He took the view that at this point in time it was not yet possible to assess with any degree of precision what significance this change would have for the Romanians and Hungarians living in the border regions.
Mr Orbán highlighted that today there were 12 road border crossing stations between Romania and Hungary; from 1 January, this number will increase to 22 because while in the past the extra 10 could only be used partially, now these, too, will be fully available for use. He observed that when people living in settlements near the border wanted to cross over to a settlement on the other side of the border, on average they were required to travel a distance of 37 kilometres; this distance will now be halved, to around 20 kilometres.
The Hungarian Prime Minister stressed that “here is the opportunity for a new era to start in relations between the two countries, now we have the trust foundations for this as we have a joint achievement.” In reference to the words of his Romanian counterpart – according to which Hungary is an important country for Romania from an economic point of view – he pointed out that Romania was extremely important for Hungary from the viewpoint of energy security.
“Last year, we managed to buy 1.75 billion cubic metres of gas through Romania,” the Hungarian Prime Minister stated. He indicated that Romania was a reliable transit country also as regarded the transit of nuclear fuels, and the more energy cooperation via Ukraine was becoming paralysed, the more important cooperation with Romania was becoming for Hungary.
Ion-Marcel Ciolacu recalled that almost a month ago they had shared an historic moment in Budapest as Romania had become a full member of the Schengen Area. “We are celebrating this success and the friendship of our peoples” in which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán played a decisive role as this would not have been possible had Hungary not held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, he added.
According to the Romanian Prime Minister, their accession to the Schengen Area will result in a 2 per cent GDP increase for Romania, and this growth will no doubt also be reflected in Hungary as “that will be the gate through which we will forward Romanian products to Europe.”
Mr Ciolacu said they spoke about several topics because they would like to cooperate in large projects. Hungary is one of Romania’s most important economic and trade partners, but they must create new opportunities in order to increase investments and to enhance economic interactions, he said.
The Romanian Prime Minister mentioned that he had also spoken to Mr Orbán about the enhancement of the two countries’ economic competitiveness, infrastructure projects, regional security issues and the future of transatlantic relations.
In reference to the negotiations that are currently held with a view to the formation of a new government in Bucharest, the Romanian Prime Minister observed that in all the clamour the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania and president of the alliance Hunor Kelemen represented stability. He added he was certain that they would continue to have excellent cooperation with the alliance, the politicians of which had always been competent and fair partners of the Bucharest government.
