Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen (L) shakes hands with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto at a press conference after their meeting in Budapest, Hungary on August 29, 2017. "The objective of both countries is to enhance the competitiveness of the EU and to restore Europe's safety," Szijjarto said. "We agree that illegal migration and terrorism will be the serious challenges of the forthcoming period for the EU," he explained. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Hungary and Denmark are good allies having no disputes with each other, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto told here on Tuesday after meeting with his Danish counterpart Anders Samuelsen.
"Hungary is an important ally of Denmark in the EU and in NATO, and there are no really controversial issues between the two states," Szijjarto said in a press conference with Samuelsen after talking about international challenges of the European Union (EU).
Anders Samuelsen is the first Danish foreign minister to visit Hungary since 2006, Szijjarto underlined.
"The objective of both countries is to enhance the competitiveness of the EU and to restore Europe's safety," Szijjarto said. "We agree that illegal migration and terrorism will be the serious challenges of the forthcoming period for the EU," the Hungarian chief diplomat explained.
"We also agreed in the fact that the external borders of the EU must be protected, and that the problems causing migration must be dealt with in their place of origin," he said.
Samuelsen agreed and said that solutions had to be found that curbed illegal migration and the activity of human smugglers.
About the state of economic ties, Szijjarto mentioned that the level of foreign trade between the two countries reached one billion euros (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) last year and 150 Danish firms in Hungary employed some 10,000 people.
Another international issue was that of Poland, where the government has clashed with EU institutions several times recently, notably on the issues of judiciary system's reform, the logging of Bialowieza forest, migration crisis and the European Commission's reform proposals on the posted workers directive.
The Polish government and the EU's attitudes vary also on the refugee issue. On July 26, the European Commission pressed ahead to the second stage of legal actions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over refugee sharing for "non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation". This move came a month and a half after the Commission launched infringement procedures by sending "letters of formal notice".
According to the Commission, Poland and Hungary haven't taken in any refugees since September 2015, when EU member states pledged to relocate a total of 160,000 migrants within two years. If the countries still refuse to comply, they might face a financial penalty.
"While we are living in the worst terrorist threat of the European Union's history, we must stop to be picking on some member states," he said in response to a question on Poland, referring to Hungary and Poland.
"We stand by our Polish friends and, of course, if someone were to impose EU sanctions against the Poles, we would veto those sanctions," he concluded.
