HR/VP — Hungary's eastern foreign policy and relations with Kazakhstan

10.4.2015

Question for written answer E-005755-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Csaba Molnár (S&D)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made an official visit to Kazakhstan on 1 April. He said during the visit that Hungarians are aliens in Europe and must turn to the East if they want to feel at home: ‘We are treated as political equals in the European Union, but our origin makes us outsiders. When we go to Brussels, we do not have any relatives there, but when we come to Kazakhstan, we find kinsmen. It is a strange feeling that a person has to travel east to feel at home.’ It is no surprise that a prime minister who has demolished the rule of law and media freedom and dispensed with human rights feels better in the East than in Brussels, since Europe’s fundamental values are not observed there. While on the official visit, the Hungarian prime minister lavished particular praise on Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been in power for 24 years, calling him the ‘cornerstone’ of Kazakhstan’s stability. If the prime minister of an EU Member State thinks so highly of the presidential elections of one of the world’s least democratic countries, the credibility of the EU is also called into question.

— Is the European Commission prepared to respond to the statement made by the Hungarian prime minister in Kazakhstan to the effect that he feels better in the East than in Brussels?

— Has the College of Commissioners discussed the Hungarian prime minister’s statements? If so, what conclusion have they come to? If not, then why not?

— How much does the Hungarian prime minister’s praise for the state of Kazakh democracy contribute to the credibility of the EU’s foreign policy among our eastern neighbours?