The EU Has Completely Isolated Itself in Global Politics and the World Economy

As the European Union has now completely isolated itself in global politics and the world economy, Hungary — with a policy grounded in common sense and mutual respect — has been able to preserve its international competitiveness. That was the message delivered by Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade, Peter Szijjarto, on Friday in Brussels.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto (Source: Facebook, Peter Szijjarto )

According to a statement issued by the ministry, Peter Szijjarto, speaking at a press conference following the ministerial forum between the EU and the Indian and Pacific states, emphasized that it is becoming increasingly clear that the European Union has severely isolated itself in global politics and the world economy by attempting to spread and impose what he called a “crazy, aggressive liberal ideology,” by the arrogance of the Brussels bureaucracy, and by a total lack of common sense.

“With European countries continually undermining President Donald Trump’s peace efforts, they are also politically isolating the European Union from the United States. By treating China as a systemic rival, they are isolating the European community from one of the largest global economies. And by introducing sanctions against Russia, they have destroyed the foundation of European economic growth,” he said.

Besides all this, isolation has also occurred with Southeast Asian countries and Africa, as Brussels continually tries to force European liberal policies on countries that come from entirely different contexts,

– he added.

FM Szijjarto emphasized that in this environment, extremely export-oriented Hungary must protect itself from what he described as the EU’s botched economic policies and must maintain the competitiveness of its domestic economy and investment climate, even despite Europe's downward pull.

We have been able to achieve this in recent years because Hungary has grounded its policy — including both its foreign and economic policy — in common sense and mutual respect. We Hungarians do not want to see the world divided into blocs again; we were the losers of that era,

– he stated. “What we want is an era of building and maintaining connections — in simpler terms, connectivity — from which Hungary has already profited greatly.

Mr. Szijjarto highlighted that Hungary is interested in maintaining the closest possible cooperation with the Indo-Pacific region. “We Hungarians are successful in this area. It includes some of the world’s fastest-growing countries and the most important trade routes in the global economy. We have succeeded in raising our trade volume with this region to 15 billion dollars, and Hungary has profited significantly from this,” he underlined.

We continue to support concluding free trade agreements between the European Union and its partners. The freer world trade is, the fewer trade barriers there are, and the fewer obstacles stand in the way of building economic relations, the better it is for us Hungarians,

– he stated. “This is why it is a major problem that the European Union — Brussels — continually tries to mix ideological and political issues with trade and cooperation based on common sense. As a result, the EU has been unable to develop strong economic partnerships with distant regions of the world,” he added.

We are calling on the European Union not to impose political and ideological conditions on trade and economic cooperation, because Europe can only lose from that. Less ideology, less politics — more common sense, more respect,

– Hungary's foreign minister concluded.