Press Advisories

26. 1. 201822:54

During his official visit to Hungary, Babiš discussed the development of transport connections and mutual trade

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš started his official visit to Hungary on Friday 26 January 2018. During the day, he met with President János Áder and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He also attended a summit of the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group countries, and discussed with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Babiš' Budapest agenda began in the Heroes' Square, where he laid a wreath at the grave of an unknown soldier. Later he met with Hungarian President János Áder, discussing mainly about economic cooperation. Hungary is the 8th most important export destination for the CR, and last year alone the mutual trade exceeded 7.5 billion EUR. According to Babiš, cooperation can be further developed mainly in the defence and aviation industries, and in the nuclear power industry.

Babiš and Orbán discussed mutual bilateral cooperation between the two countries as well as within the Visegrad Group. They agreed that it was important that V4 countries actively discuss with other EU Member States, thus contributing to the search for European solutions. They also confirmed that some traditional partners of the V4 could also attend V4 summits in the future.

In discussing bilateral cooperation, they talked, for example, about the development of rail connections in the Central European region. Connections among the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary should improve also thanks to a permanent group of rail transport experts, established in December last year.

“I am very glad that we discussed the high-speed rail project today, including possible funding. I regret we have not addressed this a long time ago. The Czech Republic cannot afford to be outside the backbone lines in the Central Europe. We will definitely want to cooperate on this project, Babiš said.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš welcome the existing cooperation between Czech and Hungarian universities. He also finds meaningful a joint research project ELI, involving laser centres in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

As regards European issues, both prime ministers confirmed that the main priority was to preserve the unity of the European Union and coherence of the internal market. V4 countries must proceed together also in the upcoming discussion about the Multi-annual Financial Framework, in the context of which they want to promote funding of new priorities, including defence and security. As far as migration is concerned, they agreed on the need to reform the common migration and asylum policy, because the mandatory quota mechanism is inoperative and unacceptable for both countries. Instead, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of external borders and cooperation with third countries.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also discussed the parliamentary elections awaiting Hungary on 8 April 2018. 

On Friday, Prime Minister Babiš and other prime ministers of the V4 countries attended a summit on the future of the European Union.