Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini paid an official visit to Budapest on 16 June at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart Janos Martonyi.

The main purpose of the visit was to map out opportunities for shaping Hungarian-Italian political, economic and cultural relations, and to establish the basis for further cooperation. Topical European Union issues were also on the agenda.

The parties reviewed EU-related issues such as the balance of Community institutions after the Lisbon Treaty’s enactment and the urgency of forming the European External Action Service and readying it for action. At the press conference following their meeting, Mr Martonyi emphasised that the two countries shared the same views as regards the European integration endeavours of the Western Balkan countries. The Hungarian Foreign Minister underscored the need to speed up the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy for boosting competitiveness, to strengthen economic coordination and to ensure that the Union’s institutions are balanced and operate efficiently.

A key topic of talks concerned the strengthening and deepening of bilateral relations. The head of Hungarian diplomacy emphasised that both sides were keen for Italy’s presence in Hungary to grow even stronger in the political and economic spheres, and in terms of cooperation on infrastructure, R+D, education—and especially cultural presence. The foreign ministers agreed that Hungary and Italy will work out special cooperation programmes for such strategic areas as energy policy. In this respect, the partnership of the two countries puts emphasis on increasing Hungarian-Italian contributions to the formation of a unified European energy policy (diversification of energy resources, alternative energy, security of supplies), energy efficiency and the EU’s energy-climate package. With this aim in mind, the foreign ministers agreed on reactivating the work of the joint Hungarian-Italian professional committee on energy.

In order to advance cooperation between the two countries, the foreign ministers signed a Declaration on Strategic Partnership.