Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has revealed that the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will not attend an EU mini-summit on migration due to be held in Brussels on Sunday.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters after Hungary’s V4 presidency handover to Slovakia that “after a very careful analysis of the document, which was sent by the European Commission in the context of Sunday’s ad hoc meeting, we came to the conclusion together that it’s something along the lines of recycled procedures, proposals from the past that are not understandable to us. They are for the most part not acceptable."
“We do not belong to the club of friends of refugee relocation and do not intend to take part in this process,” he added.
PM Orbán said the Visegrad Group and Austria agreed that the European Union must be in a position to protect its external borders against migrants and ensure security for its citizens.
At a joint press conference after the V4-plus-Austria summit, PM Orbán said ties between members of the EU should be “characterized by cooperation rather than confrontation”.
The prime minster said that migration should be handled “with a focus on issues on which consensus can be reached”. Border protection and setting up refugee camps outside the EU were two such areas, PM Orbán added.
The prime minister said there was “no point in pushing issues” such as quotas when there is no agreement on them.
PM Orbán said Thursday’s meeting was “special” because migration, the EU budget, and cooperation in central Europe were on the agenda. The Austrian chancellor, present at the summit, had a “crucial role” in those areas, he added.