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9 October 2024 National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic and Hungarian National Assembly Speaker Laszlo Kover

Wednesday, 9 October 2024

Hungary Hands over 2025 Presidency of Central European Initiative to Serbian Parliament

After the meeting with the Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly Laszlo Kover, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Ana Brnabic said that the country has ceded the 2025 Presidency of the Central European Initiative to the Serbian Parliament.

At the press conference in the Serbian Assembly, Brnabic thanked Kover, stressing how very important this is for Serbia and its positioning.

She said that Hungary is one of our country’s most important partners, in fact the fourth most important partner in terms of foreign trade and the third within the EU, after Germany and Italy.

Brnabic thanked the Hungarian Parliament Speaker, as well as Viktor Orban, for using every meeting in Brussels and Strasbourg to praise Serbia and call on the EU to accept it as a full member.

She pointed out that parliamentary cooperation between the two countries is extremely important within the framework of the strategic cooperation council that was established in June 2023.

She also said that the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Hungary is one of the largest in the parliament, boasting 71 members.

"It was important to me that we talk at a time when Hungary holds the presidency of the EU," said Brnabic, adding that it was important for her to hear what still needs to be done in order to open cluster 3.

Kover thanked Brnabic for the opportunity to meet.

"In the past 10 years, we have gone from national reconciliation to a strategic partnership and friendship, as the Speaker said. This applies not only to the process of European enlargement, but also to economic cooperation," he said.

He went on to say that the two countries’ cooperation can serve as an example for all of Europe and added that this was the level he wanted to achieve with other neighbouring countries, as well as that Serbia has its neighbours with whom it would probably be happy to have the kind of relations like the ones with Hungary.

"Our central topic was European integration and we are trying to influence that process and do everything in our power to speed up the EU enlargement process," he said.

Hungary believes that the candidate countries should not be viewed as a group, nor should Serbia's membership in the EU be tied to Ukraine's membership, but that each country should be evaluated based on its own results.

The opening of cluster 3 would be a great step forward, if not this year, then at the beginning of next year, in order to achieve progress in terms of European integration," said the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament.

Source: TANJUG