Hungary is determined to protect itself and Europe from illegal migration and calls on Brussels to cease operating double standards on the issue, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Bratislava on Thursday.
After a meeting of counterparts of the C5 format of central European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia), Szijjártó told a press conference that illegal migration was among the gravest common challenges faced by the region.
He said Hungary, since 2015, had spent hundreds of billions of forints on border protection, securing central Europe and Europe more broadly against the potential influx of one million illegal migrants.
Szijjártó said he told his counterparts that the European Commission president had praised Poland for building its border fence and pledged financial support, yet “we Hungarians are paying a fine of one million euros to Brussels each day for protecting the external border” of the bloc.
He called this a “grave injustice” and a “gross double standard”. In the spirit of central European solidarity, Szijjártó said he had asked his counterparts to help resolve the matter.
Read more about the Hungarian government on Daily News Hungary.
EU law requires all members to observe the right of refugees to make a claim of asylum from within EU borders. Hungary has refused to observe this right to allow refugees to claim asylum once inside Hungary and that is why European Court of Justice made its’ decision and applied the fine to Hungary. There is no “double standard” here but only one standard. Poland built a fence – great. Hungary built a fence – great. Those fences have nothing to do with the ECJ decision. The European Commission president moreover has nothing to do with the ECJ so Szijjarto is making up his grievance to influence Hungarians with disinformation. In 2024 there were a total of 29 (TWENTY-NINE) asylum applications registered in Hungary with 8 granted refugee status and 6 “subsidiary protection”. One of those eight is Martin Romanowski who has a European arrest warrant outstanding and is facing criminal charges in Poland. Orban’s friends, the Russians and the Belarussians have been bringing asylum seekers by plane to their countries and then push them across the Finnish and Polish borders hence the Polish fence and the complete closure of Finland’s border with Russia since December 2023. Russia uses refugees to destabilize and divide Europe.