Hungary's foreign minister has said that the V4 group of countries "stands united” on the issue of migration.
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, made the remarks after meeting his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski in Warsaw.
Minister Szijjártó said that the 2015 EU decision of issuing a migrant quota to every member state “is unacceptable because it goes against common sense and because it infringes upon EU treaties”.
Hungary and Slovakia recently filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice regarding the quota scheme, a suit that Poland also backs, and the Czech Republic has made it clear they would not participate in the redistribution scheme.
The minister also addressed the European Commission's statement that it may start infringement procedures against countries not complying with the quota scheme. Szijjártó said the EC’s objections “are political and not legal”, aimed to weaken the Hungarian and Polish governments. “We shall not allow the Commission to blackmail or threaten us," he said.
Meanwhile, interior ministers of the Visegrád Group countries issued a joint statement declaring that decisions on migration should be made at a prime ministerial level.
“The redirection of refugees should not be decided at ministerial level by the Council of the European Union, but at a higher, head of government and state level; the European Council must make a unanimous decision," the Interior ministers said.
Hungarian minister of Interior Sándor Pintér also addressed the issue of migration. There is “no breakthrough” as yet in the European Union with relation to the migration crisis, but they are “taking note of the opinion of the V4 and are increasingly taking in account the fact that policies must change to match reality," he said.
During the Hungarian presidency of the V4, which begins in July, “Budapest will be insisting on the principles that we have developed together," he added