The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, met in Sarajevo with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, who is on a working visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Konaković and Szijjarto signed the Action Plan on the priority support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the way to European integration of BiH.
Konaković thanked his Hungarian colleague for his selfless support and lobbying for BiH’s full membership in the EU.
“What we opened today with special attention as a new topic is official, formal support in a process that is difficult, for which BiH is not yet sufficiently prepared, and it concerns the opening of the beginning of negotiations and going through all these technical, complicated administrative procedures. Hungary is offered, and we gladly accept that kind of help, in terms of going through all the hard negotiations that await us in this part of the procedure, I hope, from March already,” said Konaković.
He added that he and his Hungarian colleague discussed the economy and improving relations between the two countries. As he said, the volume of trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary exceeded 600 million euros.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto said that his country will take over the six-month presidency of the EU Council on July 1, less than a month after the next European elections.
“It is in the interest of the European Union as much as it is in yours to become a member of the EU as soon as possible. One of the main goals of the Hungarian presidency will be to greatly accelerate the process of integration of the countries of the Western Balkans, because we believe that this would bring peace and stability in this to the region,” Szijjarto said.
He added that “everyone who slows down the process of integration of the countries of the Western Balkans is working against the interests of the European Union”.
“In the European Union, there are member states that publicly support enlargement, but when we meet in a closed circle, they say something completely different. Our goal is that when we take over the presidency, during those six months, negotiations with your country will really start and that the first intergovernmental conference will be held.”, he added.
He said that he proposed BiH colleagues to provide training for about 50 young diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Hungarian Diplomatic Academy.
He also referred to illegal migration in Europe, pointing out that pressure is increasing on Hungary’s southern borders.
“Hungary takes a clear position on this matter. We will act against illegal migration very decisively during our presidency. We want to make it clear that you can enter Europe only in accordance with the regulations. We will act against migration quotas and we will try to force Brussels not to encourage migrants to come to Europe. We want Brussels to finally respect international law, which says that if someone has to flee, then as a refugee, he should stay in the territory of the first neighboring safe country,” said Hungarian head of diplomacy.
Photo ©️ Fena
