Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
He planned a trip to Hungary last week.
In September, Verkhovna Rada Chair Ruslan Stefanchuk could not make the planned visit to Budapest because the speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, Agnes Foretfer, and other officials refused to meet with the Ukrainian counterpart. This is reported by European Pravda, citing sources. ZN.UA sources corroborate the colleagues’ information.
As the publication found out, Stefanchuk planned the visit to Hungary for the week after 7 September. Prior to that, the Ukrainian parliament became the first in the world to recognize and condemn the systemic repressions against Hungarians during the USSR period.
“However, the visit did not take place. The Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, Agnes Forestopher, simply refused to meet with the Ukrainian colleague. And any Hungarian official as well,” the article states.
Journalists add that a few days after the failed visit, Stefanchuk ended up in Budapest while returning home from a G7 meeting—and Hungarian officials again refused to meet.
In the speaker’s team response to EP, they avoided mentioning the Hungarian refusal. Instead they emphasized that immediately after taking office, the Hungarian speaker “personally invited the Ukrainian colleague to visit.” The speaker’s team stressed that they continue to try to arrange a meeting.
“The Ukrainian and Hungarian teams are actively working to organize the first meeting between the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and the President of the National Assembly of Hungary, Agnes Forestopher. We are grateful to the Hungarian side for the official invitation to visit Budapest. At the same time, we are ready to welcome Agnes Foretfer in Kyiv or in any other Ukrainian city by mutual consent,” said Vadym Kolodiychuk, spokesman for the Speaker.
ZN.UA commentary
Of course, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest should not have allowed such an affront to the Speaker of the Parliament. If the system worked and someone listened.
Recall that last week the EU enlargement working group (COELA) again failed to approve the screening results of the second and third negotiation clusters for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union due to Hungary’s position.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry noted that Ukraine is trying to determine Hungary’s position and the reasons for its blocking the opening of the next clusters. Despite statements by Hungarian officials that they await certain steps from Ukraine, Budapest has not specified which ones.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Угорська спікерка Агнеш Форштоффер відмовилася від зустрічі зі Стефанчуком у Будапешті — ЗМІ". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZN.ua.