MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/ The EU will survive provided that all the member states muster solidarity and responsibility, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said after negotiations with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
"We see the EU as a very serious structure", Jean Asselborn noted, commenting on his statements about the possible exclusion of Hungary from the EU. "I will not discuss any particular country," he added.
Asselborn also said that the EU "was established after the World War II in order to avoid any new disastrous clashes between the French and Germans, or between other European countries, at that time this structure was called a community", Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister pointed out.
"I think the EU will survive only if all the member states show solidarity and responsibility", Jean Asselborn said. According to him, "the Brexit problem can be solved, but the if the essence and the importance of the EU are gone then the question of survival will be impossible to tackle." "This is what I meant in my interview with a German newspaper, my words were not targeted at any country’s people, my only goal is to make people better understand the essence and importance of the EU," Jean Asselborn stated.
In an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper published today Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister maintained that Hungarian policy went against the European Union regulations so it would be reasonable to exclude such a country from the EU. He also said that Hungary’s exclusion could provide the only possible opportunity to preserve the EU’s values and unity between member states. At the same time, Jean Asselborn suggested that a new rule could be introduced that would in future let the EU countries make such decisions without consensus between the community’s members.
Luxembourg favors meaningful talks between EU, NATO and Russia
During the talks with Lavrov, Asselborn has also emphasized that a meaningful and transparent dialogue between NATO, EU and Russia is crucial:
"Luxembourg always supports political dialogue between Russia and NATO, I am all for a transparent and meaningful dialogue between the parties".
"Cooperation with the European Union is not easy to carry out. I would like to restore cooperation with Russia which would be beneficial for both sides", Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister explained.
He noted that Luxembourg and Russia’s foreign ministers had met some time ago when "the relations between Russia and the EU were at a simpler level." He called for "a return to those times." "European security cannot be ensured unless there is an open and honest dialogue. This is true for Afghanistan as well where Russia plays an important role in combatting drug trafficking, in particular", the diplomat stated.