János Bóka, the minister for European Union affairs, said the European Union must primarily guarantee peace and security for Europe, which was the purpose of the community’s founding fathers and this is what people in Europe also expect today.
Bóka said Hungary would hold the EU rotating presidency at a time of crises, noting the war in Hungary’s neighborhood, Europe’s declining competitiveness, increasing tensions in the EU’s trade relations, migration waves, and “an upheaval” in European agriculture and demographic challenges. “A new European competitiveness pact is needed, a new approach to migration, stronger European security and defence policy and immediate measures to ensure that European people and European farmers are again in the focus of the common agricultural policy,” he added. Bóka said the Hungarian presidency in the second half of the year would work towards these goals.