22 May 2014, Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare), Romania

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A sincere welcome to all of you. There are several reasons why I have come here today to hold talks with President Hunor Kelemen [President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR)]. The first and most important reason is the upcoming European Parliament elections on Sunday. The DAHR and the largest Hungarian governing party alliance are mutually supporting each other at these European Parliament elections, and in addition to the obvious fact that we are both Hungarian, both organisations are also members of the European People's Party. I am sure you too are aware that there is a fierce battle underway at a European level between the European People's Party and Europe's socialists. Both the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People's Party Alliance and the DAHR have an interest in assuring that the future of Europe is determined by the politics of the European People's Party during the course of the next five years. And the future of Europe will to a great extent be decided by the make-up of the European Parliament that will be voted in at these upcoming elections. We, the members of the European People's Party, want to win these elections, but that can only occur if both the Fidesz-KDNP alliance and the DAHR do well in the elections held in their respective countries. And for them to do well requires that their supporters go out and vote. And accordingly, today's joint message from President Hunor Kelemen and myself is that we ask that as many Hungarians as possible go out and vote. Naturally, we also touched on issues of internal politics during our meeting. The DAHR recently became a member of the Romanian government. We wish the DAHR much success in its work within the Romanian government. We also touched on the relationships between the DAHR and the Hungarian government. We agreed that we will be operating an intensive, strong and regular consultation system. And we also touched on Romanian-Hungarian government relations, with regard to which I confirmed that Hungary has an interest in a strong, good and stable Romanian-Hungarian relationship, in the interests of which we will be working hard during the upcoming years. Ceterum censeo: we ask that the Hungarians go out and take part in the European Parliament elections on Sunday.

Thank you for your attention.

(Prime Minister’s Office)