Central, southeastern Europe to come up with common migration security plan

Vienna (MTI) – Representatives of countries in the central and southeastern European region decided to elaborate a common security plan to control migrant routes across the Balkans and to fight human smuggling, at a meeting of interior and defence ministers of the region in Vienna on Wednesday.

The plan is expected to be completed by April.

Istvan Simicsko, Hungary’s defence minister, told MTI on the sidelines of the talks that participants had similar positions in terms of managing the migrant crisis and were ready to cooperate in the implementation of such a plan. They were in agreement that their plan would contribute to “efficient, Europe-level cooperation”, he added.

State secretary Károly Kontrát said the central and southeastern European plan would be a milestone in the fight against illegal migration. He added it is important that the EU should make decisions in line with the conclusions of the Vienna talks to enable the community to “combat illegal migration efficiently”.

“Hungary has, from the beginning, stressed that illegal migration must be stopped; the EU’s largest members now share that position,” Kontrát said.

The Vienna talks were attended by ministers of Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Greece, as well as officials of the Central European Defence Cooperation.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI