Government’s weekly press briefing about migrant crisis, Paks project, education and local councils

Budapest, February 18 (MTI) – The Visegrad Group has proposed helping countries in the Balkans, the government office chief said on Thursday, adding that chaos would ensue otherwise. The government has no means to hike teachers’ wages by 15-20 percent at the moment, government office chief János Lázár said.

V4 propose helping Balkans in migrant crisis

János Lázár told a weekly press briefing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was especially interested to hear about European disputes concerning the migrant issue during Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit on Wednesday.

The V4 countries, including Hungary, do not want to see a new divide in Europe. Maintaining European unity is a fundamental interest, he said. The idea that the V4’s position rubs up against German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy creates “an artificial confrontation”, he said.

The V4 countries accept that Europe’s lines of defence should be reinforced at the Greek and Turkish borders, he said, adding that Turkey’s input was key, he said.

The main line of defence should be at the Greek border but if migration cannot be stopped then the new line should not coincide with the Schengen borders of Hungary, Slovenia, Austria or Italy, he said. “It would entail unforeseeable consequences if the second line of defence coincided with the Schengen border,” Lázár said.

The V4 countries continue to reject the mandatory migrant quotas or any attempt by the European Commission or Germany to distribute migrants among EU member states, he said.

Hungarian-Russian ties

Concerning to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow on Wednesday, he said the government welcomed Russia’s reaffirmation of its commitment to “maintaining the capacity” of the Paks nuclear power plant.

Hungary aims to develop and extend stable cooperation with Russia and, in line with its foreign policy strategy, seeks to negotiate with all in both the west and the east, Lázár said.

He reiterated Hungary’s view that European and global affairs cannot be resolved without Russia.

Lázár said he regarded the Brussels summit starting on Thursday as important, since it offers the EU an opportunity to take preventative measures to avoid an immigration crisis this year. The European Commission has been unable to resolve the problem for a year, he added.

It appears highly likely that sealing the Hungarian-Romanian border with a fence is unavoidable, Lázár said. The European Commission’s “impotence” and “the situation that has emerged” have forced such a move, he added.

Lázár criticised the Austrian left-wing parties and the chancellor for continuously attacking the Hungarian government and “sending messages without concrete facts”.