Orbán's meeting with EU Commissioner Verheugen

Former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Günther Verheugen, on 1 April in Budapest. Hungary's accession timetable and the Hungarians in the neighbouring countries were the issues on the agenda.

Dátum: 2003-04-02 18:49:00, eredeti URL: http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=8927
KCMDB-be feltöltve: 2024-05-04 18:10:45.053487, Feltöltő: fidesz_hu_scraper_v2

Following the meeting, also attended by former Minister for Foreign Affairs János Martonyi and Vice-Chairman of Parliament József Szájer, Mr. Orbán told journalists that the Commissioner convinced him that no delay was expected in the accession of candidate countries as a result of the recent row between the European Council and and the European Parliament. (The European Parliament complains that that the accession protocols contain elements that would have needed its consent.) As Mr. Orbán explained, Mr. Verheugen expressed his confidence that a solution would shortly be found to this issue and the debate would not cause any postponement in the accession procedure, although the European Commission is not a party to this conflict.

The issue of the Hungarians in the neighbouring countries was touched upon in a post-accession context. Mr. Orbán emphasised that three of Hungary's neighbours with significant Hungarian minority populations - Romania (1,5 million), Serbia (0,3 million) and Ukraine (0,2 million) - will not be joining the European Union together with Hungary in 2004. In the case of Romania, Mr. Orbán asked Mr. Verheugen that exemption from Schengen-visa, introduced for that country in 2002, be maintained. As to Serbia, a flexible arrangement should be necessary, which does not ruin the access of Voivodina Hungarians to Hungary and vice versa, whereas the position of Ukraine is a more delicate one, which needs time and negotiations, Mr. Orbán said.

1 April 2003