now, the visegrad [i group is effectively dead because your position here in prague is so very different from viktor 0rban s in hungary. and the eu commission, the eu parliament have for years now been locked in a confrontation with hungary, where they say that hungary is violating fundamental european values when it comes to all sorts of things from corruption to the independence of the judiciary, to the treatment of minorities. there is, hanging over hungary, the possibility of severe eu punishments and, theoretically, the possibility of expulsion. well, i am fully behind the restriction that the eu put on hungary with regard to funding a number of projects because this funding is based on sharing common values and principles and if a country doesn t follow these common principles, then how could they be entitled to get money from a common budget? i support it but, at the same time,
as a confirmation of the right approach to their foreign and security policies. and as we heard openly from their top representatives, russia wouldn t stop with ukraine. see, there are nearby countries friends of yours, i was going to say, but clearly the word friend is wrong now but former friends of yours in hungary, for example, a member of the visegrad [i group, along with you in the czech republic and slovakia, and poland hungary takes a very different view. viktor 0rban, the prime minister, says that europeans are, in effect, farming the flames of this conflict. they are prolonging this conflict with their anti russia stance. and he says, no way will hungaryjoin the weapons supply to ukraine. and they will, in fact, continue their energy cooperation,
their economic cooperation with vladimir putin. is it time to reconsider hungary s position inside the european union? well, through the history of the eu and nato, a number of countries went throug the periods of, let s say, democratic deficit. it s not there forever, viktor 0rban will not represent hungary forever, and the situation may change. i strongly believe that hungary belongs both to the eu and nato and we have to work with the current leadership from the position of common interest. a number of areas are without any conflict, but we have a serious disagreement in foreign and security policy. see, just a few years ago, this visegrad [i group was seen as a rising power bloc within the european union.