If Hungary’s EU presidency lives up to its responsibility, it will “do a great service to the EU as a whole”, EU affairs minister János Bóka told current affairs channel M1, adding that this primarily lay in getting through the message expressed by voters in the European parliamentary elections. “Hungary’s EU presidency acts in a politically responsible manner if it tables topics and generates debates on issues such as the bloc’s drifting towards the war in Ukraine, its economic policy undermining competitiveness and its failed migration policies, on which voters called for change,” Bóka said.
Concerning the meeting between the prime minister and Volodymyr Zelensky, Bóka said noted that the task of the presidency was limited to aiding the flow of information and channelling the opinions of the parties concerned into decision-making. The minister said the EU saw this war as its own and, besides military and financial support, communication also formed part of the war strategy. “If we cannot talk about the war without that communication being part of warfare itself, then we are part of the problem and not the solution,” he said, adding that Viktor Orbán wanted to change this approach by talking about working to resolve the war, and this could only be achieved by an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations based on it.
Bóka also highlighted the informal European Council meeting in Budapest scheduled for November, where the goal will be to adopt a new European competitiveness pact marking the path by which the bloc can stop the decline of its economic competitiveness. The minister said the central priority of the Hungarian EU presidency is competitiveness and “if we succeed in adopting a declaration that puts economic policy at the service of growth and prosperity, then the EU may perhaps move under a more fortunate constellation in the next five years”.