Ruling party head highlights Hungary’s “strongest” support for Georgia’s EU candidacy

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said Hungary was one of the “strongest” supporters for granting the European Union membership candidate status to Georgia, and further expressed his confidence that the Hungarian Government’s stance on the matter would not change.

Kobakhidze was commenting after he was asked by the local media about a report by Politico that cited a letter sent by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, to demand a review of the bloc’s strategy of supporting Kyiv in the midst of its ongoing war with Russia, and threatened to block Ukraine's EU accession process.

EU-Hungary negotiations are an EU-Hungary affair. I am sure that the European Union will manage to successfully conclude negotiations with Hungary, and it will be ensured that this country takes a position which, in this case, is in the interests of Ukraine”, Kobakhidze said. 

“As for Hungary's attitude towards Georgia, Hungary is one of the strongest supporters for granting the candidate status to us, and we are sure that this position will not change”, he concluded.

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Monday highlighted the support of Orbán for the country’s European integration by saying the official was a “very big supporter of the European future of our country”. 

On November 8, the European Commission issued the recommendation for the European Council to grant Georgia the status, with the latter’s decision expected in December.