“We are an independent, sovereign, grown-up nation with its own values and interests,” Katalin Novák said. Hungary is “not just west-oriented but has been an integral and unalienable part of the West for at least a thousand years”, she said. She added she was “not happy with the fast and loose” between the European Commission and the Hungarian government, but said that “the country’s sovereignty must be protected”. “We demand the same full-fledged membership and respect as the citizens of any founder (of the EU) or later entrant are entitled to; a regular place at the table in Brussels.” “It would be good to return to cooperation based on mutual respect, and that indeed requires compromises,” Novák said. She said the EU has weakened rather than strengthened during the past decade, and is now “lagging behind the United States and Asia in terms of its ability to promote diplomatic interests and competitiveness”. Europe has “forgotten about common strategic policy making and has placed ideological issues in the focus”, she said, adding that “we must wake up”.