At a joint press conference with Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson in Luxembourg on Thursday, Interior Minister Sándor Pintér said the Schengen area, still under serious pressure from migration, must continue to be treated as a top priority by all EU member states.
Hungary has long regarded the boosting of external border security as of key importance and it wants to involve third countries in doing so, Pintér said after a meeting of the EU interior ministers.
Visa controls must be brought up to scratch to avoid having to make deportations in the first place in cases of long legal processes due to a crime or terrorist act, he said.
The activities of border and coast guard agency Frontex and EU police body Europol was also on the agenda, he noted.
Pintér argued for increasing deportations of illegal migrants and to do so more quickly than the current legal environment allows. He also called for improved law and order in areas where migrants committed crimes.
Meanwhile, at the meeting ministers discussed the full Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria, about which both he and Johansson expressed optimism. She added that the interior ministers of all the relevant countries, including Austria, which previously vetoed the accession, were in contact regarding the issue.
Regarding child abuse, Pintér noted that Hungary treated the issue as a priority, and, following a discussion at the meeting, meaningful progress was expected to be made in the future.
Also, combatting drug trafficking and organised crime were matters of separate discussions, he said.