Brussels ‘has declared war’ on protecting EU’s external borders, says Orbán’s minister

Brussels has declared war on the protection of the EU’s external borders, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the prime minister’s office, said in an interview with the Austrian Freedom Party’s Neue Freie Zeitung newspaper.

Protecting the EU’s external border is also the protection of the Schengen zone, and this makes sense only if genuine refugees are able to travel to Europe, he said, adding that this is why Hungary set up so-called transit zones in 2015.

Gulyás said Brussels had sent “a message of war” by suing Hungary, and the European court of justice decided this practice was illegal, even though the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights had earlier ruled to the contrary.

Hence, Hungary changed the relevant law, he noted, adding that Serbia was considered an EU candidate country and a safe state, so asylum applications can now be submitted at the embassy in Belgrade.

He said the European Commission challenged this, and the court of justice “ruled against the protection of external borders and for mass migration”, ordering Hungary to pay a fine of 200 million euros and a million euros per day until the ruling is accorded with.

Hungary, he added, would neither pay the fines nor allow migrants into its territory. Gulyás said that if Brussels wanted migrants in Europe, “it must take care of them itself”. He said Hungary was “ready to give one-way tickets to migrants” to travel further into Europe in response.