Speaker meets Austrian counterpart in Vienna

The working lunch focused on the priorities of Hungary’s presidency of the European Council, economic and border protection cooperation, as well as stopping illegal migration, the statement said. Kover and Sobotka also touched on support for the EU integration of Western Balkans states, the conflict in Gaza, anti-Semitism in Europe and the war in Ukraine.

Kover and Sobotka welcomed an expanding cooperation between the two parliaments, through regular meetings of the heads of parliaments and cooperation between expert committees and friendship groups.

Kover thanked Sobotka for Austria’s help in border protection, especially for deploying policemen to the Hungary-Serbia border, the statement said. At the same time, he said the European Commission’s decision to levy fines against Hungary over issues regarding migration policy were “unacceptable”.

Sobotka said Austria supported the priorities of the Hungarian presidency, especially those connected to “ushering the Western Balkans into the European Union” and to fighting illegal migration.

At the same time, Sobotka expressed concerns over what he called the Hungarian government’s “discriminative” interference into the food retail sector and the construction industry, and called for further talks on the matter. Kover proposed to table the issue at the Austria-Hungary economic roundtable.

Sobotka and Kover both praised their countries’ growing tourism, and Kover said he hoped Austrian tourists’ interest in Hungary would grow even further.