Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos is in Budapest, where he met this morning in a bilateral meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Janos Martonyi.
During the meeting, they discussed Greek-Hungarian relations, with emphasis on the sectors of energy, transport and tourism, as well as matters concerning Hungary’s relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
They also looked at the priorities of the Hellenic Presidency as they bear on issues of particular interest to Hungary, such as the Single Resolution Mechanism and the management of migration flows and pressures being experienced on EU land and sea borders. The meeting took place in a very friendly and creative climate, and it was decided to continue the consultations through the convening of a Joint Working Group.
Mr. Venizelos is in Budapest to participating in the meeting of the four Visegrad Group countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) with the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. The Ministerial Meeting will focus on the plan for the Aegean-Baltic energy corridor – in which the Trans Adriatic Pipeline is playing a special role – as well as infrastructure for storing the LNG Greece provides from its Revithoussa terminal.
Of course, due to the composition of this multilateral meeting, the central political issue is the situation in Ukraine, given that four countries bordering on Ukraine are participating, and, consequently, this meeting is of particular importance for the shaping of the European position with regard to Ukraine.
At the same time, Mr. Venizelos is in ongoing contact with the EU High Representative and President of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Catherine Ashton, who is traveling to Kiev today for an initial encounter with the new situation taking shape in the country.
February 24, 2014