Orbán: Hungary Backs Ukraine’s EU Members Hip Bid

  • 25 Nov 2016 8:00 AM
Orbán: Hungary Backs Ukraine’s EU Members Hip Bid
Hungary supports Ukraine’s aspiration to become a member of the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a joint news conference held after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Groysman. Orban also said it was a “moral duty” of the EU to grant Ukraine visa-free status.

But given that a decision on this is being “blocked” in the EU, Hungary has decided to issue national visas free of charge to Ukrainian citizens, Orbán said.

He said the Visegrad Four grouping of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia would act as a representative of Ukraine in the EU on the subjects of visa liberalisation and the EU-Ukraine free trade deal.

Orbán also said that Hungary is prepared to help Ukraine strengthen its sovereignty, which he said Hungary considers “the most important matter”.

He announced that Hungary and Ukraine had signed an agreement on an infrastructure development programme for which Hungary will provide 50 million euros in credit to Ukraine.

Hungary will provide a further 2 billion forints in 2016 and 5.2 billion forints in 2017 to Ukraine for economic development projects, he said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Illyés Tibor

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