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Hungarian FM tells EU to wrap up Serbian accession talks by 2020

Xinhua, August 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called for Serbia's earliest possible admission to the European Union(EU) in the interests of Balkan stability, after talks here Wednesday with Jadranka Joksimovic, the Serbian minister in charge of European Integration.

Szijjarto called on the responsible EU bodies to wrap up accession talks by 2020 at latest, "since regional instability will fail to contain a possible wave of immigration."

Szijjarto said the second-tier fence Hungary was building on the Serbian border was not against Serbia but against people who "dishonestly violate our laws, sovereignty, and our borders." He was referring to the influx of asylum seekers coming from southern Europe through Serbia.

Joksimovic voiced her thanks for Hungary's proven support of her country's European integration and its attention to the West Balkans.

She called for the EU to come up with a clear and comprehensive policy on protecting its outer borders and reducing the amount of traffic coming north through the West Balkans. That would improve Serbia's situation as well as Hungary's, she said.

Szijjarto said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban would be traveling to Belgrade on Monday, and that an intergovernmental commission on Budapest-Belgrade railway line would meet next Friday in Serbia. Enditem