Hungary Warns Failure to Negotiate Brexit Trade Deal Will ‘Devastate’ EU Economy

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Virginia Hale

Brussels must resist the urge to “punish” Britain for its decision to leave the bloc, Hungary has said, warning that failure to secure a comprehensive post-Brexit trade deal would be “devastating” for European Union (EU) economies.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó criticised the bloc’s overly hardline approach in negotiations, telling the Daily Mail there are “many people in Brussels … who look at the Brexit decision as a personal insult against them, because they simply did not believe that the British would dare make the decision to leave the EU.”

“If the EU is not able to come to an agreement with the UK then it will end up with a further decrease in its competitiveness, which has already suffered in recent years,” he said.

“If we are not able to come to a deal with a country that represents 14 per cent – or one seventh – of our economy, that would lead to a situation that would be very devastating for the EU.”

The Fidesz minister said Hungary was “especially against all kinds of steps to punish the British that would cause harm to the EU in the process”, pointing to “common projects like [the] Galileo [satellite system]”.

Breitbart London reported last month Szijjártó has previously described the EU establishment’s attempts to freeze Britain out of the Galileo programme, which the nation has helped design and pay for, were “irresponsible” and contrary to the bloc’s interests.

“Regardless of Britain leaving the EU, they are projects that must be maintained as cooperation between the 28, because if we let you out or kick you out from this kind of cooperation it would harm the European interests,” he told the Mail.

The Hungarian minister’s comments came after a meeting between European Council leader Donald Tusk and Theresa May in London, where the Polish politician told the Prime Minister he was “very, very moved” by an anti-Brexit march in the UK capital on Saturday.

Tusk also joked about England’s 6-1 World Cup 2018 victory, warning May that negotiations over Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc will be “much more difficult than the game against Panama”.

The globalist Eurocrat, whose “centrist”, pro-Brussels party has seen support from Polish voters totally collapse, previously disclosed that he sometimes feels “furious” about Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

“I believe Brexit is one of the saddest moments in 21st-century European history,” declared Tusk, speaking at an event in Dublin where he also praised Ireland for importing huge numbers of migrants from the third world in recent years.

“You became a country of immigration for the first time … yet no one ever hears of any problems on this issue from Ireland,” he said, apparently unaware of reports that residents in parts of the nation’s capital are “living in fear” amidst escalating levels of violence carried out by teenagers of African origin.

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