Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The Prime Minister has consented to me speaking in Hungarian. We are in the middle of our discussions, and the official part is essentially over. What remains is a longer discussion, which is more aimed at understanding the European and world situation. I will now talk about what has already happened.
The first thing is that we have respectfully greeted the Prime Minister, and through him Luxembourg, while reminding ourselves that the primary justification for this meeting is the centenary of our establishment of diplomatic relations. So this year marks the centenary of diplomatic relations between our two countries, and we are honoured that the Prime Minister has marked this year by coming here to visit us. In the history of two European countries it is a great thing to have one hundred years of diplomatic relations with virtually no conflict between the two countries.
We have reviewed the situation in the European Union. I will highlight just one of these aspects, which is the economic situation in relation to the “Draghi Report”. We discussed the state of competitiveness in the European Union. My understanding is that we agree with the analytical part – the diagnostic part – of Draghi’s report. We share the view that European competitiveness is undergoing serious decline. The situation is urgent. If we do not take certain decisions urgently, our competitiveness in comparison with the United States and China will continue to decline inexorably. We established that both countries have an interest in strengthening competitiveness. We have presented the plan for a competitiveness pact that we want to discuss and adopt with all EU countries in November. This Hungarian proposal for a competitiveness pact contains all the elements that the Prime Minister has agreed to, so there is a Luxembourg–Hungarian consensus behind it. I have asked the Prime Minister to support this draft competitiveness pact.
We also agreed that Europe needs a new dynamic. Here we touched on the Western Balkans, and I note that enlargement of the European Union towards the Western Balkans is an issue on which there is agreement between our two countries. We are in favour of this enlargement taking place as quickly as possible.
And we also talked about Africa, in relation to both migration and competitiveness. The Hungarian Presidency’s plan is to urge for or to formulate a joint decision which recognises that Europe needs to urgently table a major Africa plan, otherwise only trouble will come from Africa; yet if we could first strengthen the key African states there could be economic benefits. Hungary has long been calling for the EU to have a grand plan for Africa. We have not had much success in achieving this, so what we have done is to select one or two countries to which we can provide major assistance through deep cooperation. We are not waiting on the European Union, but Hungary is currently implementing a serious policy of helping one or two African countries on a bilateral basis. I am glad that we have agreed that instead of – or in addition to – individual attempts such as Hungary is making, we need a comprehensive, large-scale European plan for Africa.
Something else I got from this meeting is that the Prime Minister has not shied away from discussing historical issues; and it is very interesting to see how a country with the strength, position and geographical location of Luxembourg has seen the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This also provides us with many lessons, and it has confirmed my belief that Hungary will benefit from maintaining lively intellectual and political relations between our two countries, which is something I urge for. In the future I look forward to improved and ever closer cooperation between our two countries.
Thank you very much for your attention.