BUDAPEST, March 31. /TASS/. The European Union is making serious efforts to ensure Ukraine’s early accession to the community, but the sentiment of the Hungarian people may become a great obstacle for it, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto has stated.
"Brussels is making tremendous efforts aimed at fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. It’s an absolute disgrace," the Hungarian top diplomat said at a press conference following a meeting with his Equatorial Guinean counterpart Simeon Oyono Esono Angue. He recalled that the Balkan countries have been waiting to be accepted into the EU for 14 years each now, "even though every sane person can see that they are better prepared than Ukraine."
However, "Brussels also knows that there is only one possible obstacle," Szijjarto continued. "This is the opinion of the Hungarian people," which the country’s government will represent at consultations with the EU authorities, the minister emphasized, clarifying that there would soon take place a referendum in Hungary on the matter of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
The foreign minister dismissed as insignificant the opposing Tisza Party’s initiative to collect signatures for a petition in support of Kiev’s accession to the EU, saying this would not reflect the opinion that the majority of the country’s population holds. The Hungarian government believes that leader of the Tisza Party Peter Magyar, who became a member of the European Parliament last year, is taking directions from the head of the European People's Party Manfred Weber.