Minister Warns of Disconnect between Politics and Economic Reality in Europe

Europe should work together to bring peace to Ukraine, to stem the mass illegal migration flows, and to regain economic competitiveness as soon as possible, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Salzburg on Monday.

In his speech at the 20th Salzburg Europe Summit, the Minister stressed that humanity is currently living in an era of dangers, and the EU is also facing extraordinary challenges in terms of both its physical and economic security.

He pointed out that Ukraine has been at war for a thousand days and that for the past ten years, the continent had been facing massive illegal migration flows, while economic issues had also become highly ideological. “What would we propose, what do we think is in the interest of the European Union? (…)

We believe that it is in Europe’s interest that things move towards peace in Ukraine. It is in Europe’s interest to finally stem the tide of migration. And it is also in Europe’s interest to make common sense economic decisions,”

Mr. Szijjártó emphasized.

The politician underlined that Hungary is ready to play its part in this, and stressed that the government’s foreign policy strategy is based on three things:

we support all initiatives aimed at achieving peace in Ukraine, we will do everything possible to preserve national sovereignty and economic neutrality.”

Minister Szijjártó reported that there is a consensus in Europe that the trouble in Ukraine is big and could be even bigger than it is now, the fighting is getting fiercer, winter is coming, and sanctions are not working.

The question, he said, is what conclusions to draw from all this, and there are two approaches to this. One is in favor of increasing arms transfers, accepting further sanctions, and allowing the arms transferred to be used against targets in Russia. “The other approach is that instead of arms transfers, we should start negotiations and eventually find a peaceful solution to save human lives,” he highlighted. “We should try to focus on how to make peace and how not to prolong the war,” the Minister added.

He then turned to the defense of sovereignty, with a specific reference to migration. He recalled that Hungary is currently under financial sanctions and said that this is because the country is protecting the external borders of the EU, making it clear that no one can enter the country illegally. He noted that

authorities had prevented more than half a million illegal border crossings in recent years.

In this context, Mr. Szijjártó explained that international law states that if a person is forced to leave their place of residence, they can stay temporarily in the territory of the first safe country, but there is no question of “second, third, fourth, fifth, tenth safe countries.” “If we cannot return to the foundations of international law, we will not be able to protect the security of the continent,” he warned.

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Finally, the politician spoke of economic neutrality, calling the possible start of another economic cold war and a new blocking of the world, which is in sharp contrast to the interests of our country, a major threat. Instead, he said, Hungary would continue to be interested in interconnections and civilized cooperation between East and West, from which it has already benefited greatly.

“And if we put artificial obstacles in the way of the strategies of companies that are driving the economic performance of the whole continent, we could create huge problems and weaken the competitiveness of the European Union even more than it is now,” he underlined.

Therefore, there is often a huge gap between economic reality and the political arena.

And if this persists, we unfortunately do not see the way to regain the competitiveness of the European Union,” he added. “We need to work together to bring peace to Ukraine, to protect Europe from mass illegal migration flows and to regain our economic competitiveness,” he concluded.

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Featured photo via Facebook/Szijjártó Péter

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