Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said countries that “used to suffer from Soviet rule” are “much more insistent on traditional European values” than others.
Speaking at a festival organized by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, in Esztergom, north of Budapest, on Saturday, Gulyás said back in the 1990s “Western Europe felt responsible for shaping the Iron Curtain and thought it was its moral obligation to allow countries to join the European community … Brussels, however, did not have or only had a very primitive idea about a common future with new entrants … they only sought new markets and preserving their political influence”. He added that earlier members of the EU had one answer to ideological disputes: to concentrate as much power in Brussels as possible”. Concerning the EU’s further enlargement, Gulyás said the community should have “room for every European country” but added that accession should be tied to “objective criteria applying to all”. He called for solidarity with Ukraine, but added that “even with citing the war as an excuse, no exemption must be made with regard to fundamental principles of accession”. Gulyás also added it was in Hungary’s interests that those countries should also join the community that is “much closer to us than founding members of the EU in terms of ideological issues crucial for society’s order”.