Foreign minister: V4 seeking alternative strategies for protecting Schengen

Budapest, February 4 (MTI) – As the Visegrad Four (V4) countries are friends of the Schengen Area, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic must come up with alternative strategies for protecting the bloc’s external borders, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told public news channel M1 late on Wednesday.

The minister said Macedonia and Bulgaria have been invited to an emergency V4 summit on migration scheduled for mid-February because the European Union’s southern borders require stronger protection.

On the topic of Britain’s EU renegotiation, Szijjártó said the EU’s interest lies in keeping the UK in the bloc. “The EU is stronger with Britain than without it,” he said.

Szijjártó said Hungary supports some of Britain’s demands. The minister also noted that Poland’s prime minister is scheduled to visit Hungary next Monday after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, meaning that the three countries will get a chance to try to reach an agreement on Britain’s proposals. Szijjarto stressed, however, that Hungary seeks to protect the rights of its citizens working in the UK.

Concerning his talks with Poland’s foreign minister, Szijjártó said he and Witold Waszczykowski agreed that there are global issues, such as energy policy or the Syrian conflict, that can only be resolved through pragmatic cooperation with Russia.

As regards the Ukraine conflict, Szijjártó said all parties involved must adhere to the Minsk Agreement, adding, at the same time, that Europe must pursue dialogue with Russia, as failure to do so would lead to further losses in competitiveness on the EU’s part.

Photo: MTI

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