Hungarian FM urges EU to fast-track Georgia’s integration

At a joint press conference with Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó emphasized the importance of Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union, urging Brussels to facilitate Georgia’s integration into the European family, Georgian Public Broadcaster reports. “European Union should be also happy that Georgia wishes to join the European Union. Brussels should do everything in its power to ensure that Georgia becomes a member of the European family as soon as possible. What we see happening is that the liberal mainstream in Europe, the positions in favour of a war of the Brussels bureaucrats, wish to make it impossible for Georgia to be successfully integrated into Europe. In such times we have to ask the question why is that so? The answer is that Georgia has a patriotic government. Georgia has a government, which stands pro its national interests. Georgia has a government, which wishes to resist and also resists foreign influence and does rather well. They have also adopted a law, protecting that. They have a government that protects families, the traditional family model and they also adopted the law concerning that,” said Szijjártó. Drawing a parallel with Hungary’s experience, Szijjártó stated, “Despite this pressure, we stood up for national interests, for peace, for our families and for our work, because if we abandoned all this, then we would lose our sovereignty. Sovereignty is something we must protect.” “During our recent discussion, I assured the Minister of Foreign Affairs that Hungary will continue to fully support Georgia’s EU integration aspirations. I also promised to do everything in our power to ensure that Georgia’s integration process advances during Hungary’s presidency. Georgia has shown excellent economic growth and development in recent years, and we believe that countries with such rapid development can significantly contribute to the European Union. The European Union’s competitiveness has unfortunately decreased in recent times, so it is in the EU’s fundamental economic interest for Georgia to gain accession. This could have a positive impact on the European Union’s economy,” Peter Szijjártó declared.