Formal talks with Serbia on EU accession are to commence by January 2014 at the latest - Foreign Minister János Martonyi revealed the decision reached at the meeting of the EU Ministers of European Affairs in Luxembourg on June 25.

The Foreign Minister said that parallel to this, discussions with Kosovo could also begin regarding an Association Agreement. With respect to the decision reached by the General Affairs Council, the EU Heads of State and Government will have the final say at their summit to be held during the second half of this week. Participants attending the summit will most probably approve - said János Martonyi. "There are some elements of parallelism between the two" - said the Foreign Minister.

At the same time, the Council also decided that accession talks with Turkey could continue, with the opening of yet another, to be precise the 22nd chapter, but talks on this will not begin now, only during the second half of the year, once the European Commission has published its annual country report on Turkey. In response to a question from MTI, Martonyi also confirmed that this was part of a compromise solution, that "the largest EU Member State and Turkey also agreed with". Hungary - he said - supported the opening of the negotiation chapter at the earliest opportunity.

The Multiannual Financial Framework was also discussed at the meeting of Ministers, the main figures of which were adopted by the Heads of State and Government at their Summit in February, but the details of which must still be agreed on with the Parliament. János Martonyi was of the opinion that positions were very close to each other and it was probably a matter of days before an agreement is reached with the European Parliament, still within the term of the Irish Presidency.

The Foreign Minister also mentioned that the Ministers had a video conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, with whom they discussed the draft of the Final Conclusions to be submitted at the Summit. Martonyi welcomed the fact that the draft included several ideas that the Government in Hungary had either proposed or had already implemented.

"It has a lot of elements which completely coincide with Hungarian economic policy" - underlined Martonyi, who in this respect mentioned the envisaged measures to curb youth unemployment and protect jobs.

Martonyi also revealed that Visegrád countries had raised the idea that the issue of floods should be "given more consideration" at EU level and should be managed according to a new system.

"Relevant processes need to be accelerated" - underlined the Foreign Minister, who announced that the four Visegrád countries are expected to submit a detailed position on the alleviation of flood damage.

In addition to the above, the General Affairs Council again discussed the initiative in which the Foreign Ministers of four countries turned to the European Commission, asking it to develop a more flexible and efficient mechanism to ensure the rule of law within the European Union.
The Ministers held a short debate on this - said János Martonyi, who underlined again, that Hungary does not treat this issue as one that has special relevance to Hungary. Nobody mentioned Hungary directly or indirectly - emphasised the Minister. Hungary continues to agree with the initiative, but recalls that certain principles must be respected by all means. Consideration should be given to what kind of competences the Member States transfer to the EU - highlighted the Minister.

"Subsidiarity is very important, transparency is very important, equality between Member States is very important and national identity should be respected, especially constitutional identity. Whatever mechanism is established, the principle of fair procedure should be adhered to" - said János Martonyi, in whose view cooperation with other international organisations like the Council of Europe is also necessary and existing mechanisms should serve as the basis for all this. The Minister also explained that during the coming months the Commission will put its ideas on this to paper, which will then be discussed by the Council in both the General Affairs and the Justice and Home Affairs format.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)