Competitiveness will be a central theme of all council formations and the informal Budapest meeting of the European Council in November, Bóka told journalists before a meeting of the General Affairs Council. Also, EU enlargement will be a key topic, he said. “
Our goal is for all candidate countries to advance in this process under the Hungarian presidency,” he said.
Meanwhile, shoring up the bloc’s relations with Switzerland and the UK, handling demographic challenges, combatting the spread of anti-Semitism and protecting Europe’s Jewish cultural heritage will also be on the agenda, he added. Boka noted that the second item on the agenda of the General Affairs Council is the council’s dialogue on the rule of law based on the European Commission’s relevant 2024 report. In addition, representatives of North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania will take part in today’s meeting for the first time, he said.
“It’s very important that the candidate countries of the Western Balkans participate as equals in this dialogue,” he added.
At a press conference after the meeting, Boka said it provided an opportunity to present the priorities of Hungary’s EU presidency that include competitiveness and enlargement policy, and the priorities were generally backed in the European Union.
“One of the key priorities of the Hungarian presidency is to pursue merit-based, balanced and credible enlargement policy,” Bóka said, calling it important that political attention should again be directed to the Western Balkans.
He said the meeting’s participants had also had a discussion on general developments related to the rule of law in the EU, making use of the European Commission’s 2024 rule-of-law report.
Other topics discussed included the future of the EU’s common agricultural and cohesion policy, strengthening Europe’s security and defence policy and current demographic challenges. They also discussed the agenda of the Oct 17-18 summit of EU leaders.
Answering a question on further support to Ukraine, he noted that the EU presidency’s program had parts with details on what form of support the individual member states could provide on a bilateral basis to Ukraine.
Hungary provides substantial support to Ukraine, in line with its own strategic interests and security considerations, the minister said.
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