In an interview with the French weekly Le Point, Minister of EU Affairs János Bóka said it was regrettable that the situation in the Southern Caucasian region of Nagorno-Karabakh had escalated and military force had been used.

‘We’d like to see the calming of the situation in order to guarantee the safety of civilians,’ he said, then added: ‘We believe the European Union must play a role in reducing tensions and, as far as possible, make an attempt to act as an intermediator between the sides.’

‘The European Union must maintain its intermediary position so it can negotiate with both sides,’ Bóka continued, adding that sanctions would not reduce tensions.

‘Sanctions will not reverse the developments,’ he said,

adding that these can be reversed only by ‘restoring regional stability and basic rights, including guaranteeing linguistic and cultural rights.’ This could only be achieved through dialogue with all interested parties, he went on to state.

Commenting on the EU budget controversies, Bóka noted that Hungary was not allowed access to EU resources from the Recovery Fund while at the same time, the European Commission had proposed an increase in expenditure. Also, Hungary, as he pointed out, had limited access to cohesion funding while the EC proposed a significant increase in resources for rebuilding Ukraine and preparing it for its EU accession.

Under such circumstances, ‘it is very difficult to reason that Hungary should make a greater contribution to the EU budget while the country receives very limited access to EU resources,’ the minister said. Before adopting a position regarding the proposal, Hungary wants to work on the political context which will ‘ensure greater room for manoeuvre for us to play a positive role in the process'.

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Sources: MTI/Hungarian Conservative