Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the European Union has opened new accession chapters with Albania for the second time in two months.
Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the foreign minister said the development was "a great success" for Albania as well as for the Hungarian EU presidency.
Hungary is clear-eyed about the importance of the region's stability, peace and progress, Minister Szijjártó told a press conference after the EU-Albania intergovernmental conference, noting that the presidency prioritised the bloc's enlargement.
Western Balkan countries have been waiting for EU membership for an average of 15 years, Minister Szijjártó said. "That is unacceptably long and disrespectful to those countries," he said.
Albania applied for membership in 2009 and became a membership candidate in 2014. Negotiations started in 2022, "but we had to wait until 2024, and the Hungarian presidency for the actual process to start," Minister Szijjártó said. The past two months, he added, had seen more progress than the previous 15 years.
Minister Szijjártó said that opening the chapters relating to foreign ties and security policy was a good decision in view of Albania's "excellent performance" in the field. The country, he said, was a reliable NATO ally and "has performed well in the UN Security Council".
The minister said that Hungary had firsthand experience on the "enormous progress" that Albania's economy had made in the past few years, as Hungarian companies in top positions on the Albanian market could attest to.
Hungary and Albania earlier signed an agreement on the training of 50 Albanian public servants at the Hungarian Diplomatic Academy, "because Hungary well remembers how complicated the EU accession process can be," he said.
Asked about a remark by Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna that he felt Szijjarto was "playing for another team", the minister said he was "absolutely right". "We play for another team: he's on the pro-war team, and I'm on the pro-peace team."