Orbán explained, Vučić thanked him VIDEO / PHOTO

Orbán explained, Vučić thanked him VIDEO / PHOTO

Previously, Vučić presented the Order of the Serbian Flag of the first degree to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Péter Szijjártó, for special merits in developing and strengthening the cooperation and friendly relations between Serbia and Hungary.

President of Serbia thanked the Hungarian government for the economic cooperation, as well as for the cooperation in the field of European integration, and especially, as he said, due to the fact that Serbia has excellent relations with the Hungarians in Vojvodina thanks to the Hungarian government.

"Thank you for your role in the Western Balkans, for supporting Serbia on its European path. Few people do it bravely and openly, few people are ready to do it like you. We can only thank you and say that you will always be able to count on our friendship and we hope that we will be able to reciprocate", said Vucic.

"We believe in the EU's future and Hungary's support on that path, and we will increase cooperation with Hungary and the countries of the Visegrad Group. I believe that we will try to make these relations, if at all possible, even higher," Vucic said.

"Once again, I want to tell Orbán that he is always welcome here and that we can have more frequent meetings. We are in close relations, and both countries benefit from that. Thank you again for your role in stabilization in the region, because without a stable region there is no progress", Vucic added.

Orban explained why he is in favor of Serbia joining the EU

After Vučić, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also addressed the media, talking about the points of their today's conversation, which mostly consisted of economic issues.

"He also said that all long-term goals are much more important than short-term ones and that is what stabilization in the region means. It is not just a spiritual but an essential issue," Orbán said, adding that he was fully aware of the past 30 years in the region, as well as the last 10, or let's say seven, because he has been present in politics all this time. In that sense, Orbán adds, the numbers say it all, Serbia was at the end, and now it is at the top, it is among the first, Orbán added.

"If we are talking about European membership, and I am speaking from experience because I led the negotiations on Hungary's accession to the EU and I know that every country tried, because we thought we were all equal and everyone had equal chances. But it turned out that no one will be accepted if Poland is not accepted", Orbán said, and continued:

"So, when we were admitted to the EU, we also had one major country, so I understand Serbia and I think that it should be admitted to the EU because it is the central country of the Western Balkans, without whose accession to the EU there will be no admission for others. Serbia is a key country".

He added that Serbia can always count on Hungary, just as Hungary can always count on Serbia.

"They could have strangled me"

Asked to comment on the attack on Hungary and him because of his commitment to Serbia's accession to the EU, Orbán commented that he was under attack by Brussels when he built a wall on the border because of the migrants.

"If they could have strangled me in Brussels, they would have strangled me a long time ago. They wanted to do that when I said in Brussels that migration must be stopped, and now others have started raising fences because of migrants," he said. Now in Hungary, too, faith in the EU and the future of the EU are at a very low level, Orbán said, adding:

"We cannot think about what is happening in Brussels because the West is coming to great prosperity, and we are uncertain about where we are going", and the road can lead both up and down. Now in Brussels they call it elegant 'being fed-up with enlargement', but if something is not done about it, the EU will become unstable," Orbán said.

The countries surrounding the EU will be unstable, that is, the EU's external borders will be unstable, the countries will be dissatisfied and, in the end, everything can lead to the disintegration of the EU.

"Enlargement to Serbia should not be delayed, but should be accelerated. And that is not a philosophy, I say that from experience, they were very afraid of enlargement when Hungary was admitted to the EU, but the EU needs enlargement," Orbán concluded.