Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has underlined how Serbia has been “ready to join the EU for years” and Hungary is a committed supporter of those endeavors.
During a ceremony marking the start of the refurbishment of the railway line linking Subotica (Szabadka) and Szeged, the prime minister said that “the Schengen border of the European Union should be further down south”, and Serbs should be allowed to cross the border with Hungary without a passport. “Serbia is the gateway to the Balkans and a key state for Europe’s security”, he said. PM Orbán said that once the upgrade of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line was complete and the planned Baja-Subotica line was built, border crossing would be ensured with “the simplest control procedures”. “Politics should serve the interests of local residents”, PM Orbán said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić thanked PM Orbán for his “courage and vision” to “lay a new groundwork” for Hungarian-Serbian relations, and said their bilateral relations were now “better than at any other point in recent years”.