Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungarians are the only ones who are able to stop Ukraine's European Union accession at a forced speed, adding that such a step would "present impossible challenges for our economy" and ruin past achievements.
Speaking at the Central European Summit in Budapest, Minister Szijjártó protested against "fresh proposals from Brussels on Ukraine", which would send further arms and money, as well as military advisers. It would also make it possible for Ukraine "to join the EU before its official accession date", he added, according to a ministry statement.
"Brussels is aiming to fully integrate Ukraine economically into the EU's single market before the country would fully join the EU," he said.
Minister Szijjártó said the integration would result in Ukraine's workforce "flooding" the European labour market, including Hungary. "This would mean that farmers working with a totally different set of standards, as well as GMO produce, would flood the central European market, including Hungary, and poor quality, cheaper services would ruin many Hungarian companies."
"Brussels has clearly decided to quickly push Ukraine into the European Union for political, ideological, philosophical, geopolitical and other reasons," Minister Szijjártó said.
Also, Minister Szijjártó insisted that "Brussels knows full well" that Hungarians were the only ones capable of stopping that attempt. "First of all, we are brave enough to take on the Brussels liberal mainstream on our own, and we also have the political stability to oppose the Brussels steamrollers," he said.
"That is why they are trying to produce a result showing that Hungarians actually support Ukraine's accession," he added.
In the past few days, "we were informed that the Tisza Party really supports Ukraine's EU accession... The government's stance, and Hungary's, will depend on the voice and opinion of Hungarians" as presented in the referendum on the matter, Minister Szijjártó said.
Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó said Ukraine had shown no readiness to regulate the situation of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia in the past decade, who he said had been brutally stripped of their rights.
"Our expectations of Ukraine have been clear for ten years. Restore the rights Hungarians possessed in 2015, full stop. It's not complicated..." he said.