Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has hailed Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union a success.
During an international press conference on Saturday, the prime minister said that even "their opponents" had acknowledged both the "quantity and the quality" of the work done.
The prime minister started the press conference by expressing his condolences to Germany and the families of the victims of a terrorist attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg. PM Orbán said that though it would take a couple of days to "draw the political consequences" of the attack, "these phenomena" had only been occurring since the start of Europe’s migration crisis.
He said the lesson for Hungary was that it must carry on resisting being changed into "a world where something like this can happen".
Concerning Hungary’s EU presidency and referring to suggestions that Hungary was isolated, PM Orbán said: "I’ve never seen isolation like it in my life; half the world was here", adding that Hungary had organised the biggest diplomatic event in its history.
He said the Hungarian presidency had applied a policy-based, rather than a "bureaucratic" approach, noting that its focus had been on the Russia-Ukraine war, the Schengen area and competitiveness.
As regards the war, he said the presidency had "no room for manoeuvre" because of the "serious and deep disagreements" in the EU over the strategy to be adopted in connection with the conflict. Despite this, he added, the gravity of the situation had warranted Hungary’s launch of a peace mission and push for peace.
"We set these apart from the EU presidency, which led to some debates, but today no one will dispute that Hungary has a right -- and we believe it has a duty -- to launch a peace mission," PM Orbán said.