The Visegrad Fund’s 15th anniversary – Szijjarto: V4 cooperation important in migrant crisis

Budapest, December 11 (MTI) – Cooperation between countries of the Visegrad grouping of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has never been so important as it is today in view of the migrant crisis, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said at a ceremony marking the Visegrad Fund’s 15th anniversary on Friday.

Addressing the event organised by the Antall Jozsef Knowledge Centre, Hungary’s Foreign Ministry and the International Visegrad Fund, Szijjarto said “hypocritical and incompetent” European policies had prevented a joint European response to the crisis. “It is only central European countries that have offered solutions to the immigration crisis not only in words but in real deeds,” he told journalists after the event.

It must be made clear to all European leaders that Europe is unprotected and will remain so as long as it cannot protect its external borders, he said.

The only working model for handling the crisis is the Hungarian one, he said, adding that if only Europe would follow the Hungarian model it could meet the challenge successfully. This model could not have been created had it not been for Visegrad countries, as it was with the help of Slovakia, Czech Rep and Poland that Hungary could lay down the rule that Hungary’s territory can only be entered by fully respecting Hungarian and European regulations.

“Today it seems that only one country is protecting the European Union and the Schengen zone from the south, and this country — Macedonia — is a member of neither the EU nor Schengen,” he said, adding that it is thanks to Macedonia that migration pressure on Europe has dropped. The unusual situation has emerged that the southern border of Schengen has been shifted to Greece’s northern border, he said. The EU should therefore pay especial attention to supporting Macedonia in the interest of protecting Europe, Szijjarto added.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters