Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said western and northern EU countries continue to oppose the integration of the Western Balkans, and called recent talks in the European Council "sobering".
According to MTI, the foreign minister said the EU had failed again to provide target dates for integration to Western Balkan applicants, and the accession talks had yet to start with North Macedonia and Albania. Minister Szijjártó noted that Serbia has opened four new chapters in the integration procedure, bringing the number of open chapters to 22 of 35. “Brussels is sliding back into a Western Balkans policy limited to lecturing and sanctions,” he said, noting that Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s recently inaugurated foreign minister, had threatened Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with sanctions against the province. Hungary, Minister Szijjártó said, would veto any such step should it ever come before the European Council. Bosnia and Herzegovina is geographically close to Hungary, which has a vested interest in its stability and peace, and finds statements like Baerbock’s “worrisome”, Minister Szijjártó said.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter