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Hungary to EU: We cannot support a resolution that does not reduce migration

The EU’s proposal is a motivator for migration instead of being concerned about how to reduce migration into Europe

Hungary can only support an EU resolution that is aimed at reducing migration, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has said.

During Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, he said that the EU’s proposal with relation to migration is more of a motivator for migration instead of being concerned about how to reduce the level of migration into Europe.

The minister said the proposal on migration put forward by the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and which she would like to have adopted by the Member States’ ministers at Monday’s session, was totally unacceptable.

"The proposal says nothing about protecting the EU’s external borders and includes no proposal for the survival of the Schengen Area," he stressed. “It is extremely unbalanced. It includes the well-known bad approaches arranged around a totally flawed concept," he added.

Minister Szijjártó, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek and Slovakian Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak were all present at the Brussels meeting of EU foreign ministers

Minister Szijjártó expressed his regret that the resolution incorporates several elements from the Italian Prime Minister’s migration proposal package but does not include elements from the Schengen 2.0 plan put forward by Hungary’s prime minister.

“Hungary can only accept the proposal if conforming to responsibilities relating to border protection and the Hungarian Schengen 2.0 migration proposal package are also mentioned in the resolution, as well as the fact that hot spots (EU-operated asylum seeker registration centres) must be established outside the EU so that the question of who is entitled to enter the territory of the European Union can already be decided there,” he emphasized.

According to the minister, the fact that the text states that support must be provided to countries from which migration is set out for Europe, but does not mention what conditions such funding is tied to, is also unacceptable. “European taxpayers’ money should be used by beneficiary countries to reduce emigration and immigration to Europe," he concluded.