The Hungarian prime minister held a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to report on developments at the European Political Community summit.
European leaders met today in a difficult, complicated and dangerous situation, Viktor Orban said at the beginning of the press conference, explaining that
Dangers simultaneously threaten peace, stability and prosperity in Europe. For the third year, Russia has been at war with Ukraine. The Middle East is in flames and the threat of escalation looms. Destabilizing conflicts rage in North Africa and illegal migration is a persistent challenge, approaching the magnitude of its previous peak. The global economy is fragmenting and separating into blocs to a degree not seen since the Cold War.
"We have convened because we believe that together we can provide better responses to these threats than separately," Mr Orban stressed.
"My personal assessment of the situation is that we have all realized that there is no time to waste."
History seems to have accelerated. A chapter has come to an end with the US elections, the world will change, and will change faster than we think. Great, giant issues are on the table. War or peace, migration or protection, blocification or connectivity, subordination or European sovereignty,
he explained.
The Hungarian Prime Minister stressed that today's meeting of the European Political Community was a deliberation, and no formal decisions were brought. "Therefore, I am reporting to you now a summation of the views that were voiced at the meeting in which there were a good number of differing opinions," he said, adding that he would talk about what they were in agreement on.
"There was agreement on the need to respond to the US election result. We have to be aware that big changes are coming and we have to react accordingly. There was agreement on having peace in Europe as soon as possible. There was agreement that Europe should assume greater responsibility for its own peace and security in the future, and to put it more directly, we should not expect the Americans to provide us defense alone."
And there was also broad consensus that Europe must remain a substantial player in the negotiations and processes that lie ahead and will determine the future. These will affect the fate of Europe. There will be such negotiations soon, and Europe will have to be present there with the necessary weight to influence subsequent decisions,
Viktor Orban stated.
After a plenary session, working groups will continue their work according to the timetable. The Hungarian prime minister then said that he has but one comment to make, and that is on migration.
"For a long time now, I have witnessed an extreme build up of tension around this issue. The issue of migration is again putting the European institutional framework to the test. Everyone is dissatisfied with the current situation and wants change," he noted, saying
What I have found in my own contribution today is that there is a massive barrier blocking the change of political leaders' intentions that needs to be broken through, and in our profession this is called 'judicial activism'.
"We make decisions, governments implement them, and our joint decisions clash first with European and then with national judicial decisions. The progress we have made in curbing migration will suddenly fall apart." Mr Orban then stressed that
The only exception is Hungary, which has always stood on the side of rebellion against judicial activism. I don't think we can stop migration if we don't rebel against the laws and court rulings currently in force,
he stated.
The Hungarian prime minister also said that all present had thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for launching this forum and form of cooperation two years ago.
"We agreed that we need to continue and even bolster it, and we all accepted to meet next May and be the guests of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Tirana, Albania. I wish him every success in continuing his work." Mr Orban added.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama took over, saying: "If you count how many people were represented today by those who sat in this wonderful stadium, this is a Europe of 700 million. It's huge,” with the comment on the stadium referring to the Puskas Arena, the venue of the summit. Edi Rama highlighted,
There are different ways of thinking, differing positions, and so on. But it's a number that makes you think how many things could be different, how much good could come from these 700 million people being a better represented group.
Albania’s prime minister added: "I remain tragically optimistic about the future of Europe, about the future of Albania, which undoubtedly belong in Europe and I will fight every day, with new paths having opened up for us now."
He stressed,
this is also thanks to Hungary’s EU presidency, which has taken a very firm stand that we should now start accession negotiations directly. We hope that within this decade we can join the European Union along with the other Balkan countries, because it is becoming less and less sustainable and less and less possible to argue that enlargement is not feasible.
There is an EU now, Mr Rama said, that has external and internal borders, and in-between is the Western Balkans. It is an area that needs to be fully integrated with the whole in order to become part of the European Union and less accessible to ill-willed interfering and intervening.
In response to a question about the rebellion against judicial activism, Viktor Orban said that in 2015, when the migration crisis started, the Hungarian government’s first response was a rebellion. We built our border fence when it was considered the original sin. Since then, other countries have built border barriers, it is no longer a crime, and in fact it is no longer the original sin.
Mr Orban added that Hungary later introduced a system which is the only solution to migration, whereby no one is allowed into a country until their application has been processed. "Over the past ten years, I have been to many meetings, heard lectures, and listened to benevolent, truly Christian people, striving to ease the situation caused by migration. But apart from the Hungarian model, I haven't heard a single proposal that would have been a solution. The Hungarian model is: you submit your request, you stay outside the country, until we decide, and if the answer is ‘yes’, you are allowed to enter, if the answer is ‘no’, you can't come in. I haven't heard anything better than this from anyone in ten years," Hungary’s prime minister explained. He pointed out that
this is what needs to be put in practice. But today legislation makes this difficult. The European Court of Justice has condemned Hungary for this. We have been condemned for the only solution that ensures protection, even though we are protecting not only Hungary, but the whole of Europe, and we will certainly uphold this and will not let anyone in in the future either. This is the next step in the rebellion, and I think there is no other solution but for many countries to rebel against the current bureaucratic, jungle-like regulations and judicial activism and say enough is enough. We want to protect our citizens. No one can enter without our permission. Period. Until this rebellion takes a European scale, we will always hold good discussions on legal reasons and pacts.
In response to another question about US-Hungary relations, Viktor Orban said that many things have gone wrong in the past four years. "We have suffered discrimination in many areas. Setting these things right will be the first issue in our cooperation with the new administration, and we also have plans of an economic nature, which I will talk about in due course," he added.
"Regarding the matter of peace," Hungary’s prime minister said, "I have no authorization to represent a position on an issue on which there is no complete agreement. There are differences of opinion regarding the continuation of the war, or a swift ceasefire and peace negotiations."
However, one thing is clear now: pro-peace forces are more numerous. And with the US elections, the pro-peace camp has grown huge,
he stressed, noting that "we are not talking about victory or defeat. We are talking about a ceasefire, we are talking about human lives, we are talking about bringing an end to the destruction."
Cover photo: European leaders at the European Political Community summit in Budapest (Photo: Vivien Cher Benko)
