An important European summit is beginning from Hungary's perspective — one topic will be migration talks, and the other will be negotiations on the next seven-year EU budget framework, as many billions of euros are at stake, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said in Brussels on Thursday.
Arriving for the European Council meeting — a gathering of EU member state heads of state and government planned to last two days, beginning on Thursday — Péter Magyar stressed that the EU budget proposal is not acceptable in its current form. Although the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has not cut the frameworks for the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy, which are of particular importance to Hungary, the contribution expected from Hungary and other cohesion countries, such as Poland, would be significantly higher.
He stressed that it is more important for Hungary to get the content right than to reach a quick agreement, since — as he explained — the EU’s long-term financial framework determines Hungary’s budgetary situation and development opportunities, water management investments, and competitiveness investments for the next seven years. “We can accept the EU budget only if it meets Hungarian interests in every respect,” he said.
Regarding the planned debate on migration at the EU summit, he said that the mainstream European position is increasingly converging with the Hungarian stance.
“This is a good direction,” said Péter Magyar, adding that he considered it important that, for the first time, the closing declaration of the summit would record that not only states but also people smugglers can organise migration waves, thereby “instrumentalising” migration.
“This is important for Hungary in terms of lifting the one-million-euro-per-day fine and in terms of working out an agreement with the European Commission,” he said.
He recalled that the Council of the European Union had on Tuesday closed the conditionality proceedings launched under the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism, as a result of which more than several billion euros would be returned “to the Hungarian people and Hungarian companies — money that the previous government was unable to bring home.”
He stated that the Tisza government had further tightened the child protection law, which also stipulates that no sexual information inappropriate for children’s age may be disseminated to children, and no such training may be held in schools. He stated that his government believes Hungarian children have the right to grow up in safety and in a balanced environment, whether they have a family or are dependent on state child protection.
“As long as I am Prime Minister, no ideological or other training will be permitted in schools,” he said.
According to his words, the child protection law also resolves the situation of the several hundred infants that — as he said — the previous government could not and would not resolve.
“We will protect our children from hate-mongering campaigns, war posters, and fear-mongering as well — whether Fidesz and the fallen mafia like it or not,” said Péter Magyar, adding that his government will also allocate significant additional resources to child protection next year.
In the upcoming annual budget, set to be presented next week, families will also receive significantly more funding “than they ever received from the Orbán government, which marketed itself as family-friendly but in reality rather threatened and destroyed families and children,” the Prime Minister said.
Péter Magyar described it as a historic achievement that the Tisza government had been able to strengthen the rights of the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia in the areas of education, language use, and administrative proceedings. In connection with the Ukrainian law on education in minority languages adopted on Monday, the Prime Minister expressed his hope that a new chapter will open in Hungarian-Ukrainian relations.
He announced that, following his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky planned for Friday morning in Brussels, he may meet with the Ukrainian president in Berehove during the autumn. He noted that in the Transcarpathian city, which has a Hungarian majority, an institution renovated with Hungarian state funds is also expected to be inaugurated.
Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original Hungarian text.