On April 26, Minister-president Bourgeois received the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó in Brussels. They had an exchange of views on Brexit, EU trade policy and bilateral issues. On Brexit, they agreed that the EU and the United Kingdom must come to a deep and comprehensive agreement on future relations after Brexit negotiations are over. This means flexibility and reciprocity must be leading negotiation principles.
The United Kingdom is an important economic partner for both countries. Minister Szijjártó assured Minister-President Bourgeois that Flanders has Hungary as an ally in Central-Europe in defending the need to conclude a deep and comprehensive trade agreement with the UK, including far reaching customs cooperation. As being very open economies, defending free trade is in the interest of both Hungary and Flanders. As a general remark relevant to the future EU-UK relation, both sides shared the view that EU citizens and EU governments need to be kept informed transparently of the free trade agreements discussions to avoid distrust.
On bilateral side both ministers agreed that Flanders and Hungary could enhance cooperation on several domains such as science and innovation, people to people exchanges and trade and investment.
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