Bóka: Cooperation between countries in central Europe could be crucial in changing EU

János Bóka, Hungary’s European affairs minister, told the Central European Summit conference in Budapest on Tuesday that cooperation between countries in central Europe could be crucial in “changing the European Union”.

According to MTI, Bóka called for cooperation between “European states and citizens that believe in the nation state”.

“We joined the EU to guarantee the existence of nation states in the 21st century, in the age of global superpowers,” the minister said. “The EU does not serve the purpose which motivated us to join,” Bóka said, adding that the bloc lacked internal controls or guarantees to uphold the powers of nation-states.

“The principle of subsidiarity is not taken seriously by the EU’s institutions or by its court,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bóka said current changes in the US were “promising”, noting the vital importance of transatlantic ties for the future of central Europe. Strong ties between the US and central Europe could “steer the future of European integration in a positive direction,” he said.

When it came to European integration, he said, central powers and states on the periphery were at loggerheads.

“Whoever joins the EU must accept that the French and Germans decide,” Bóka said.

Yet the reason why Hungary joined the EU was to add its own values and political and societal models to the bloc, he added.

“Nations are valuable entities; we believe that sovereign nation-states are indispensable,” the minister added.

The V4, Bóka said, was a highly successful initiative and a successful lobbying group, and in the areas of cohesion, competitiveness, energy, migration and agriculture there was a “strong, unified central European platform”, in spite of certain differences between its member states.

Bóka said that within the EU “we can be united in diversity and coexist peacefully”.

“The future of central Europe is not written; our brightest days are still ahead of us,” he concluded.