The annual three-day event – The European House-Ambrosetti Forum – brings together business and industry leaders, diplomats, and government officials from Italy. It is held in Cernobbio, near Lake Como. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke on the forum’s opening day, addressing the future of Hungary and Europe.
We will defend the interests of Hungarians both at home and abroad. Today an economic forum in Italy, and tomorrow we are heading for Kotcse!
– Mr. Orban wrote on social media Friday morning.
The main goal of the Hungarian presidency is to increase competitiveness. To this end, Hungary intends to conclude a competitiveness pact with leaders of EU member states in November,
– Mr. Orban emphasized at the beginning of his speech. He said there are two main problems. The first, although the EU is a structure of peace, is that there's now a war raging in our neighborhood, and the second is migration, which continues to destabilize the EU.
He highlighted three main problems when it comes to strengthening competitiveness. The first is a need to rethink the Green Agreement, which currently runs counter to the logic of business. The second is a need to reduce bureaucracy.
If businesses want to be more competitive, we need bureaucratic procedures that are a lot less difficult, and less bureaucracy anyway,
– Mr. Orban pointed out.
The third is to make the investment climate more attractive, because we have reached a point where even European companies are investing outside the EU.
If we don't define the objective, cooperation alone is not of value,
– the Hungarian prime minister emphasized. We need more cooperation from a market perspective, not a political one. Political union is killing the EU in terms of competitiveness.
However, cooperation is very much needed in terms of defence,
– he added. There is no debate about the EU's fundamental values, which are enshrined in the bloc's basic treaties. But there are issues on which positions differ, such as war, migration or gender, and trying to create a political union on these issues would tear the EU apart.
While some countries have decided to let migrants in and are now facing problems, others have never gone down this road,
– PM Orban said. These two, very different situations cannot be dealt with in a unified way, so it would be good if countries that do not want to follow a common migration policy could opt out.
According to Hungary's prime minister, the question is why migration does not fall within the remit of individual member states' sovereignty, and why is it not something for each individual country to decide. If a country wants to live with migrants because it feels that it's good for society, then it should be allowed to do so.
But if another country considers it too risky, for example because of terrorism, public security or the burden on public finances, why should it not have the right to say no?
On the subject of the Russia-Ukraine war, Mr. Orban underlined that his first war as prime minister was the Yugoslav war, where Hungary had experienced the dangers of being in the direct neighborhood of an armed conflict. It was based on this experience that he thought a peace mission was necessary.
The first lesson he learned was that without communication there was no chance of stopping the war. So we need communication with both Ukraine and Russia," Mr. Orban remarked.
The second most important thing is a ceasefire.
If we wait for a peace plan that is accepted by both sides, there will never be peace, because the first step is not a peace plan. The first step is a ceasefire,
– PM Orban contended.
If we look at the wars of the last thirty years, we see there have been at least three ceasefires for every one peace plan,
– he pointed out. So having a peace plan is crucial, but we cannot start with that. We need communication first, then a ceasefire, and then we can negotiate a peace plan.
This is the right order,
– Mr. Orban underlined.
However, this is not what we are doing at the moment, and that's the reason why I first travelled to Kyiv, then to Moscow, and then to Beijing and Washington to attend the NATO summit, Mr. Orban explained.
I went so I could understand what chances we have for peace,
– he said, adding that he had come to the conclusion that neither side had the intention of making peace. Both sides believe that time is on their side, which is why he said he'd visited both Beijing and Washington.
So I think we now need to create an international context and environment that embodies and expresses convincingly that the whole world, not just the South, but the whole world, even Europe, wants a ceasefire as soon as possible.
– Mr. Orban emphasized.
Cover photo. The photo released by the PM's Press Office shows PM Viktor Orban arriving at the European House – Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, northern Italy, on September 6, 2024. Marcell Bíro, PM Orban's chief national security advisor is seen of the right, while Bertalan Havasi, his press chief is in the middle (Photo: MTI/PM's Press Office/Zoltan Fischer)
