Hungary plans to see the accession talks with Croatia completed during its presidency of the European Union, and after Croatia, other countries in the region should be admitted as well so that the job of uniting the European continent could be finished, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in Budapest on Thursday.
Speaking to a group of correspondents from Brussels who were invited to Budapest to a presentation of Hungary's six-month EU presidency, Orban said that the completion of Croatia's membership talks was among the main priorities of his country's EU presidency in the first half of this year.
Those priorities also include stimulation of economic growth and employment, energy security, the European strategy for the integration of Roma, and the Danube Strategy.
Hungary also supports the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area of free movement, but it will not be possible during Hungary's EU presidency after Germany and France opposed it, citing the lack of sufficient progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime in the two countries.
Hungary had hoped that the EU ministers of the interior would discuss the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area in February, but Germany and France said last month that they would not support it until Sofia and Bucharest made progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
Hungary will now try to bring about a consensus on what the two countries should do and until when so that they could be admitted to the Schengen area.
