Hungary rejects that the European Union should apply double standards in relation to anyone, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in answer to a question after the leaders of the Visegrád Four (V4) met with politicians from the countries of the Eastern Partnership at a meeting attended by the representatives of the European Commission and Estonia.
Péter Szijjártó also covered questions which were posed to the Polish Foreign Minister regarding the relationship of his country with the EU. The Hungarian Minister said: „we reject that the European Union should apply double standards in relation to anyone; we are regrettably observing that the European Commission is applying double standards in relation to Poland very intensively. This is unacceptable.”
He continued: it would be desirable if the European institutions finally started dealing with their actual duty, “rather than picking on individual Member States” and “levelling completely groundless harassment at certain Member States”. The EU has never been in such a poor state of security as it is now, he remarked, stressing: Hungary will not consent to any measure on the part of the European Union which would be detrimental to Poland.
Mr Szijjártó said in the context of another topic: while the EU is experiencing some „enlargement lethargy”, the V4 are pro-enlargement, and would accelerate the process in the Western Balkans. He expressed hope that the number of the members of the community may increase in the near future, and stressed: we reject the statement of the President of the European Commission in which he pointed out that there will be no enlargement in the next five years.
In response to the remark that French head of state Emmanuel Macron did not meet Polish and Hungarian leaders during the course of his recent visits in the region, he said: a number of attempts have been made to upset the unity of the Visegrád Group, but none of them have been successful. The cooperation of the group continues to remain the most effective and closest alliance within the European Union. He further reiterated: the Prime Ministers of the V4 already consulted with the French President in June.
In his answer, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski stressed the importance of the diplomatic cooperation of his country with France. He highlighted that there was also a bilateral summit between the parties in May. He also remarked: in his view, President Macron intends many of his comments for his own citizens – he is seeking to gain electors – and they are therefore not necessarily related to Poland. He pointed out: it is important that ideological debates should not cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.
He rejected claims that his country is becoming isolated, listing all the planned events with western, eastern and southern partners that „have now filled the calendar”.
He pointed out at the same time: EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans and the Commission, too, transgressed the technical level of talks, and discussed their case more in a political context. Concerning the Commissioner who is also the Vice-President of the European Commission, he remarked: in his view, it is his personal goal to monitor activities in Poland, and decided to go beyond his mandate and to engage in political activities against Poland.