 Good afternoon, and you're all very welcome to this meeting of the IIEA. Just before we start the usual housekeeping, the minister will not shortly introduce his address. We'll be on the record and in the usual way, the question and answer afterwards will be subject to the Chatham House Rules. It's a great pleasure for me to welcome to the Institute Minister of State for Coordination of European Affairs of Hungary, Sobolj Takac. As I said, currently the Minister of State for Coordination of EU Business in the office attached to the Prime Minister of Hungary. Minister Takac has previously been Secretary of State for Coordination of European Business. Before that he served as a diplomat of particular interest I think in Asia, but was also posted in the Gulf region. And this is not his first visit to the Institute for European Affairs. He was here in 2016. I believe it was not long after the result of the referendum on Brexit in the UK had become known. I don't know if you knew or thought then that you would still be dealing or we would still be in the shadow of that decision and its implementation when you come back. But there you are. These things sometimes take longer than initially foreseen. But Minister Takac will speak to us on the abduction of Europa, an opportunity for him to reflect and to give the Hungarian view on the various challenges that face the European Union at this juncture. Not only Brexit relates it, but in terms of the Union's future engagement with the rest of the world, its future financing, its external relations generally, and the various policies that we share as members of the Union. So without further ado, let me give the floor to Minister Takac to address us on the abduction of Europa. Thank you very much. The abduction of Europa. The Greek mythological scene of a fierce bull kidnapping the hapless girl, after whom our old continent has been named, can be found everywhere throughout Europe, especially in public places related to the European Union. Other than being the origin myth of the continent and providing a representation of a long historical past dating back probably as long as 4000 years, this myth may offer a deep and enlightening lesson also for today's descendants of Europa. The most obvious symbol is that of a ferocious beast with an insatiable and devastating lust to all around Europe. And indeed, after the destructive rampage of both Nazism and communism in our continent, this image is an alarming sign that Europe, the innocent and desirable maiden, may easily, once again, fall victim to outside and inside violence, harming her body and soul if she remains naive and indecisive. Good afternoon everybody. Of course, I should have greeted you, but I really wanted to give an insight of what we think about Europe, and I would like to start with a very deep appreciation for the invitation by this prestigious Institute of European Affairs in Dublin, with knowledge of all members like yourselves, and thank you very much for taking the decision and time to come and listen to me today. As I've been introduced so kindly and generously, my job is in the policy coordination with the European Union issued in the Hungarian government. I work directly with the Prime Minister of Hungary. I'm his close associate on European Union affairs, representing my government in the Council, the General Affairs Council, and working for the preparation of the meeting of the Prime Ministers and leaders that's the European Council. I've been working in this capacity for the last four and a half years, and truly before that I used to be in diplomacy for 15 years, working in many places, especially outside Europe, and I had nothing to do with the European Union for many years. Good old days, happy old days for me. My first lab was Asia, Middle East, and I was spending my diplomatic carry on some of these countries as well. But for the last almost five years I've been engaged in this very difficult job of working on the future of our integration with the European Union and I believe that this is what we should be talking about today. But I fortunately cannot restrict myself very well on time, and I'm very bad at time management, so it's better if I just, if you don't mind, I just will give you my presentation from the paper that was prepared for myself and that I myself prepared, and then I would rather be engaged in a discussion with you. So if you don't mind, I will just give you our basic policy wise of what we think about Europe and the abduction of Europa today. So the European Union, the equal cooperation of Europe's prestigious nations is clearly to be considered a success story of the 20th century which raised respect but also envy against itself, and it seems that Europe has by now become once again fragile and unsuspecting. As Europe was finally able to cope with the devastating effects of the 2008 economic crisis, it's immediately spiralled into a political one, closely connected to the fact that the EU was unable to protect its borders and effectively managed the biggest law of immigration since the Second World War. In 2015, more than 400,000 unarmed but mostly military aged young men marched through Hungary. We did not want to become exposed in the face of such a great physical threat, nor did we want it to happen again. If you know Hungarians just a little bit, you know that we are not the kind of people to stand idly and watch ourselves exposed in the face of such a great physical threat. We did not want such an event to happen again, so Hungary built a fence at its border, undertaking the criticism of distant moralizers. The European Union however, due to the lack of effective crisis management, European response to the migratory challenge did not take into account the common interest of all member states. The European Commission has proposed a compulsory distribution of migrants between member states, which on the one hand has led to a pull effect and has induced more migrants to travel to Europe, and on the other hand created divisions and conflicts among member states. We however want to retain the right to decide for ourselves whether we want to live together with masses of foreign population, a question that defines the future of a country for generations and fundamentally affects national sovereignty. And as you may know, we have always been firmly defending our sovereignty, our freedom of choice for our own future. Your very own billion butler eats has characterized Ireland as the Hungary of the West, so you must know what I am talking about. Hungary has therefore been working on a system that aims to hold migration inflows rather than controlling or managing them. By prioritizing the protection of common EU-extended borders and cooperating with countries of origin and transit, we have constantly rejected any initiative opposing these objectives. We did so with an overwhelming entitlement from our people. Hungarian people had already had several opportunities to express their views on immigration and citizens of Europe's other countries will do so as well in May. Although the tensions and divisions regarding migration have been one of the most visible manifestations, the political recession and leadership deficit of the EU, besides Brexit of course, is not a consequence but at least partly the cause of the problems we now face and its stems from the malfunctioning of the EU institutions. We believe that the cause of the current crisis can be traced back to 2014 when the new European Commission took office. They abandoned their neutral role, openly defined themselves as a political body and since then their proposals have reflected their own federalist views. The current Commission transcends its competencies and openly pushes its own pro-immigration agenda, which created a division between member states as we have different opinions on how to handle this complex, far-reaching issue. The European Parliament suffers from the same problem. They had been elected before the migratory crisis and represent the Brussels-centered political vision. In their dangers over confidence, they committed hubris as these two institutions did not realize that their views and actions were not in line with the needs and the will of the European people and their misunderstanding spiraled into a legitimacy crisis that negatively affects EU decision making. Citizens lost faith in the European Union as it became clear that it does not serve their interests and wishes. Furthermore, the Commission is actively trying to provoke a conflict between the southern and eastern member states by its budget proposal which would allocate funds from the economically less developed regions to the more developed ones that suffer from high unemployment rates. Moreover, the Commission would punish those member states that refuse to accept its federalist pro-migration views by even more budget cuts. Following its own hazy ideological goals, the Commission has been actively stealing competencies from member states and more and more openly started disregarding and circumventing the treaties and intervening in the domestic policies of member states while abandoning its task to fulfill the decisions of the European Council and to guard our commonly agreed rules. However, the European citizens have clearly had enough with the elitist mentality that is trying to undermine nation-state sovereignty and weaken democratically elected governments while constructing a European empire. We believed that the international balance enshrined in the treaties should be restored and the leading role of the European Council should be respected as it is the body that holds the strongest democratic legitimacy. We expect the Commission to return to its role of being the guardian of the treaties, abandon political activism and disregarding and circumventing the treaties. Furthermore, the European Parliament should abandon its practices of meddling with the internal affairs of member states and focus on its duties of co-legislator. In this respect, regarding the future directions of the European Union, the upcoming European elections will be historic. We believe that the issue of identity, the attitudes towards nation, sovereignty, self-determination and freedom is at the heart of current European political debates. This has been particularly visible in the wake of the 2015 migration crisis, which has intensified and made identity disputes a lot more visible. Therefore, migration will be the key issue of the upcoming elections. The latest survey of political-based EU barometer data has confirmed this presumption. In most EU countries, voters picked migration as the top political issue ahead of the European Parliamentary elections. The traditional division between right and left-wing parties has become blurred and even obsolete. In the end, these elections will see the clash of the pro-migration and anti-migration sides, and finally the European people will have a chance to directly express their views, regarding the two key topics of the current era, identity and migration. At this point, please let me once again turn to the wisdom of Greek mythology. Homer, in his great epic poem Odyssey, depicts a hero's journey through many trials and periods on his way home. During his adventures, the protagonist, Odysseus, has to make hard choices and make sacrifices, but in the end he reaches the shores of his homeland, Ithaca. This is a tale that has been told countless times. It's a literary trope, a hero's struggle to get home, to get to safety and to eventually find peace and prosperity with his loved ones. One of the most famous retelling of this age-old story is the modern literature in Jane Joyce's Ulysses, where the author, instead of a 10-year-long adventure, details a single seemingly mundane lay of an everyman in Dublin which becomes the microcosm of the world. The core concept of both these great artworks remains as timeless as ever. In fact, in our current days of crisis I believe that it needs to be revisited once again, as Europe has clearly lost its way, although this time neither in the tempestuous idiocy, nor in the vast city of Dublin deep in thoughts, but on a whole other scale. Just like the galley of Ulysses, our union is threatened from two sides by two equally dangerous worlds that both threaten with sinking our ship. The sculler of the federal states engulfing national identities and the haruddis of a disintegrating EU, leaving us alone vulnerable in the international storm. In Hungary, we follow our own national approach which became the basis of our current Christian democracy, defined by three key elements. It is against multiculturalism and gives priority to Christian culture. It is anti-immigration and it rests on the foundation of the Christian family model. The opponents of this approach who are not afraid to pull strings to force member states in line with their souls label this illiberal and this to discredit despite its clear domestic public support and success proved by hard data. And the tools at their disposal are numerous, ranging from the classic hardcore power which surrounds the executive and legislative branch to the much more modern and subtle thought power which compromises of think tanks, NGOs, universities, public intellectuals and the media. Once they acquire the targets that the left liberal forces need to be out of line, they come down to it with full force. We hope and we trust that the main elections will prove that there is an alternative. We expect that the European elections will bring about a shift towards the illiberal Christian democracy that rests on the pillars of the Greek philosophy, Roman law and Judeo-Christian culture. It derives support from strong nation state and is able to end the era of multiculturalism and protect our common values. We believe Christian democracy is the Aurea Mediocratis. The only way we can safely manoeuvre the galley of Europe between the skill of the federal state and the heraldies of a disintegrating European Union. We can't know for sure what the next legislative term will look like but we expect significant changes. It is likely that the next European parliament will be much more critical towards migration than the current one. Until the end of the current institutional cycle, we must not fall victim to the commission's divide and conquer politics. We must realise that they are trying to drive a wedge between the member states and create artificial divisions among us. Although the current institutions still want to influence the institutional transition with their own set of proposals. However, Hungary believes that new important legislation should be adopted in the current end term. We must wait with the important strategic decisions until the elections when both the commission and the parliament gains new legitimacy which would jolt out of the EU from its current state of apathy and reverse the widening gap between the people and the institutions. Hungary has for long supported the idea of strong Europe or strong member states. We believe that our common future should be based on the same principles. The European Union was founded on the values of our Judeo-Christian heritage, mutual respect between every member state and based on the understanding that differences in our national critiques are not a drawback but an important asset. Also at the heart of our approach towards migration lies the notion that Judeo-Christian culture and the societies based on this culture have made Europe what it is today. The most prosperous region of the world, ensuring human dignity for everyone. We see no evidence that multiculturalism and the so-called open societies would have the same effect. However, in Central Europe, we see evidence in terms of economic rules. Security and competitive means that social economic models which focus on the protection of our Judeo-Christian culture and identity are successful. We are convinced that political unity can be best presented by respecting diversity and national characteristics within the European Union and by protecting the achievements of the EU, provide tangible benefits for our citizens. The Central European Cooperation of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the Visegrad Four can be presented as the best practice of unity in diversity. Since it is a major strength of our cooperation that we step up together, fully committed whenever we agree on an issue, but we never force a position that any of us would be reluctant to support. We must focus on objectives that are consensual and thus contribute to the overcoming divisions as well as carry clear added value. These include digitalization, enhancing competitiveness, strengthening security and defence cooperation, combatic terrorism and protecting the EU's common external borders. For us, it is a top priority to preserve the integrity of the single market and the four fundamental freedoms and the fully functional Schengen system. In Hungary's view, this is the way to assure the future of our continent and for Europa that once helped us to mature into a strong and responsible woman who grabs the attacking bull by its horns and to become the self-conscious and wise queen that she is destined to be. This is the end of my former speech, which was very provocative, very strong, very strong lines, very strong sentences, but I think that you as intellectuals can read among the lines when I refer to the institutional balance, the role of the institutions, the future immigration, multiculturalism, open society. And I'm more than happy to be at your disposal to elaborate what we mean by these very strong and very provocative words and prove that we are open to the world, we show solidarity to the rest of the world, we are not xenophobic, but we are democratic. We are European as many other nations in this part of the world but this is the basic political line that we represent in the council and we have to step up for our interests. Hence, I was so direct, so clear and so straightforward. Every nation has a character, the Hungarians also have a character, we cannot do much about it, we are always very provocative, we are always having a very strong narrative and this is not a large issue, but this is how we managed to survive 1,100 years in the middle of Europe, in the storms coming from all sides. So I'm at your disposal and I would give back the floor for pressure from the audience. Thank you very much indeed.