French President Emmanuel Macron is in agreement with Hungary’s plans to improve the competitiveness of the European economy and to lobby for EU enlargement for the Western Balkans, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday.
The Hungarian leader held talks with the French president in Paris as part of his European tour ahead of Hungary taking the reins of the European Council presidency on July 1 for six months.
In an interview with the public media after the meeting, Orbán revealed that France supports the proposed program by Budapest, which focuses on strengthening the European economy.
“After Berlin and Rome, we have reached an agreement here too,” Orbán told journalists. “We have received approval that the next six months in Europe under the Hungarian presidency will be about improving the competitiveness of the European economy.”
The enlargement of the Western Balkans was also discussed.
“The Western Balkans have been waiting for 15 years to join the EU. It is wrong, it is perhaps even humiliating,” he said.
The Hungarian prime minister claimed there was a large majority of EU member states that wanted to see the countries of the Western Balkans, including Serbia, in the European Union as soon as possible, and revealed that Hungary would work for this in the next period.
Orbán also said that he and Macron welcomed the development of French-Hungarian relations, and remained confident that they would continue to strengthen them.
At present, 45,000 to 50,000 Hungarian families earn their living in French-owned companies operating in Hungary, and trade between the two countries has doubled in the last ten years.
One of the largest French companies is also a professional and business partner in the government’s effort to reacquire the Ferihegy Airport in Budapest, Orbán explained.
