Poland and Hungary will “do what it takes” to stop any potential blackmail when it comes to accessing European Union funding, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after talks with Zbigniew Rau, his Polish counterpart, in Warsaw on Thursday.
The two ministers underlined their respective standpoints that both countries are entitled to those funds because “Poles and Hungarians contribute to the EU’s economic output,” Szijjártó told MTI, adding that “the EU’s funds are a common asset”.
Attempts to “blackmail” Hungary and Poland to give up their migration policy or other policies “are unacceptable”, he added.
Szijjártó and Rau also agreed to reject the European Commission’s new migration pact. The package “advocates the same principle along with the same mistakes that the [European] commission pushed in the past five years,” he said.
The proposed pact “still includes a migration quota, even if it makes a strained grammatical attempt to describe it in a different way”, Szijjártó said.
In connection with the situation in Belarus, the two ministers agreed that Hungary will help out Poland after several accredited Polish diplomats, including the ambassador, were forced to leave the country. Hungary will issue visas on behalf of Poland until its representation in Minsk is restored, he added.
Szijjártó and Rau also agreed to continue supporting persecuted Christians. Preparations will be made in the next 1-2 months to send, by the end of the year, supplies of medical equipment to Christian hospitals in Jordan that cater to patients from Syria, he said.
He also said that during the day, he will sign with Polish Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk a “concept document that must be submitted to receive European Union support” for a planned fast rail service between Budapest and Warsaw. Szijjártó confirmed that the feasibility study for the Hungarian part of the rail link would be completed by early next year.
“The intermediary documents clearly show that the investment to build the 300kmh rail link will bring a return for the region, providing a north-south link as well as a connection to fast rail networks in western Europe,” he said.
During his day-long visit Szijjártó also opened a Hungarian consulate general in Gdansk.
Featured photo by Márton Király/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
