“Suggestions that EU institutions should draw personal consequences following the British referendum are absolutely legitimate”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in Warsaw following a meeting of high-ranking diplomats from ten EU Member States.
“The result of the referendum is a ‘failure’ and a ‘particularly unfavourable development’ from the point of view of the European Union”, the Hungarian Foreign Minster said, adding that “The British Government has already drawn its conclusions with regard to personal responsibility, but in contrast ‘the European Union’s institutions have as yet drawn no personal consequences’.”
With reference to comments by Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaorálek in Prague on Monday, Hungary’s chief diplomat told reporters he regards recent demands calling for EU institutions to draw personal consequences as “absolutely legitimate”.
Mr. Szijjártó sees the fact that following the British exit vote “the thinking of European leaders has not moved in the direction of what should be changed” as a “serious problem”. He called the fact that following the British referendum European institutions “want to further accelerate the activation of the politics that led to the previous failure” a “totally incorrect direction based on an error”.
In reply to a question from the press concerning the results of the Warsaw meeting, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said it was a “useful meeting” during the course of which we arrived at “several common denominators”, although there were several issues on which only some of the group agreed. “This is to be expected during such an early stage of consultations”, he added.
“In such a situation in which the EU must set off on an untrodden path, because of course none of those present wish to exit the EU, it is very important that we consult with each other as much as possible”, Mr. Szijjártó explained.
The leading diplomats of those countries that did not take part in Saturday’s meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the six founding Member States in Berlin were invited to attend the meeting in Warsaw at the proposal of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Hungarian, Bulgarian, Greek and Romanian Foreign Ministers, Minister of State for EU Affairs David Lidington from the British Foreign Office, and Ministers of State for Foreign Affairs and other high-ranking officials from Austria, Spain, Slovakia and Slovenia all attended the meeting.