EU has a vested interest in Western Balkans’ integration
14. 10. 2022.
On Thursday in the Carmelite Monastery, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the recently re-elected leader of the Serbs in Bosnia, with whom he spoke about the European integration of the Balkans countries as well as about economic and energy security issues, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief informed the Hungarian news agency MTI.

Mr Orbán congratulated Mr Dodik on his victory in the Serbian presidential election in Bosnia.

At the meeting, the parties agreed that today it is more important than ever before for the European Union – currently affected by the war and the sanctions crisis – to have the states of the Western Balkans among its ranks. They stressed that the process must be accelerated, and so they welcomed the fact that this week the European Commission had made an official proposal regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU member candidacy.

Mr Orbán and Mr Dodik also agreed that they would further strengthen economic relations between Hungary and the Serbian community in Bosnia.

In the area of energy cooperation, they spoke about common projects which would contribute to the alleviation of the consequences of the European energy crisis both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Hungary. They agreed that the details of the plans would be formulated in the coming weeks, Mr Havasi reported.