Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Telavi, on Thursday, that Hungary strongly supports Georgia's EU membership which is also in the interest of Europe.
Following a joint Hungarian-Georgian cabinet meeting in the city on Thursday, the prime minister said Hungary supports granting Georgia an EU candidate status because it deems that to be just, adding that in order to maintain its competitiveness, Europe would need such a fast-developing country as Georgia. PM Orbán said the European Union’s competitiveness had been saved through the accession of central European countries, which he said was “proof that if Europe rejects peoples willing to work and develop, it will pay through losing its competitiveness”. Connecting the EU with the Caucasian region is in the interest of Europe, and “linking up with Georgia is the easiest way in that,” PM Orbán said. “That is why we were extremely sad, even angry, when we saw that Georgia was rejected a candidate member status, whereas countries obviously far behind Georgia in terms of development had been granted that status,” he said. The European Union should decide if enlargement is “conditional on political merits” … if so, Georgia’s treatment has not been fair and “should be remedied without delay,” he said.