NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor hosts Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on a working visit to Slovenia

Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor today hosted his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán who arrived to Slovenia while touring particular countries before the beginning of Hungary's Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2011. During their talks, the two prime ministers discussed Hungary’s preparations for and priorities of this task, as well possibilities for closer bilateral cooperation during Hungary's EU presidency.

   

At a press conference following the meeting, Mr Pahor said that they agreed to continue the tradition of joint sessions of the Slovenian and Hungarian governments. "The session will be prepared very thoroughly in order to present the results yielded at our previous joint session when the Slovenian Government visited Hungary," emphasised the Slovenian Prime Minister. The joint government session will be preceded by the Slovenian-Hungarian business forum whose aim is to enhance bilateral trade in goods and services.  This will contribute to the consolidation of both, bilateral cooperation and joint action on third markets. Prime Minister Pahor also called on his Hungarian colleague to consider, in the implementation of the constitutional amendments in respect of the representation of the Slovenian minority living in Hungary, the example of Slovenia, where the Hungarian minority has its representative in the National Assembly. The Hungarian Prime Minister assured him that this issue would be carefully examined. This year, Hungary amended its constitution allowing for the possibility that in the future, the national minorities could from among their members elect up to 13 deputies.

   

The two prime ministers devoted great attention to the upcoming Hungarian EU Presidency. In this connection, Mr Pahor presented to his Hungarian colleague two Slovenian wishes, namely "the continuation of attempts to jointly manage the post-crisis economic and social policies in Europe and the maintenance of EU understanding of and sensitivity towards the Western Balkan issue". The Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán assessed these wishes as obvious and legitimate. Regarding the economic crisis he expressed his hope that we may already be in a stage of overcoming it, while emphasising the need for optimism. Tackling on the EU policy towards the Western Balkans, Mr Orbán said that he does not see any reason why Croatia should be kept waiting and that Serbia should by no means stay outside the integration. At the close of the press conference, the Hungarian Prime Minister moreover said that he is pleased with Slovenia's achievements, but nevertheless also "somewhat sad", since several years ago, Ljubljana and Budapest have jointly planned their EU accession, while in its attempts to join the euro area, Hungary remained behind.