This was a busy week for the European Council: the prime ministers, the ministers of foreign affairs and the ministers of European affairs also met. There were plenty of topics, but even among them special attention was directed to the issue of EU enlargement. - wrote Péter Szijjártó Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in his Facebook post yesterday.
As you can read: The debate was unfortunately sobering: the northern and western European countries still do not want enlargement, the western Balkan countries did not receive the target dates this time either, the negotiations with the Albanians and the North Macedonians have not yet started, the Serbs and four new negotiation chapters opened (out of 35!) meant only scant consolation.
The EU is beginning to slip back to the point where Brussels' Western Balkans policy consists of education, lessons and sanctions. This is not a very imaginative approach, and it is also dangerous. If anyone, then we Hungarians well remember the tragic consequences of the Western world's attempts to punish the Western Balkans.
My new German foreign minister colleague, Annalena Baerbock, recently threatened Milorad Dodik, the leading politician of the Republika Srpska, with sanctions.
Such statements fill us with concern, since Bosnia and Herzegovina is close to us, and maintaining the country's stability and peace is our basic security interest . Berlin is further away, but not so far that you can't fly from there to Banja Luka at any time. Fly away and negotiate. To talk to the Bosnian Serbs. With them and not about them. Maybe that would help you understand the situation.
The EU can only introduce sanctions against anyone with the unanimous decision of the member states, and just to be clear, it is worth stating: Hungary will not support any kind of sanctions against the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik. If there is such a proposal, we will veto it.
Enlargement and not sanctions: this is what the EU's Western Balkans policy should be about in the future.
Photo: Facebook/ Péter Szijjártó
