France endangers EU unity, Hungarian foreign minister tells Die Presse

Hungary rejects the French “threats” that European Union resources should be withdrawn from members that fail to demonstrate solidarity, and with such proposals France endangers the unity of the European Union, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told Austrian daily Die Press in an interview published on Saturday.

Hungary has demonstrated solidarity; it has spent more than 1 billion euros on protecting the external borders of the EU and without this hundreds of thousands of more migrants would have entered the EU, Szijjártó insisted.

He described French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s recent critical remarks as blackmail and said it was not the first time that Hungary was threatened with the withdrawal of cohesion funding. He said

“we are sick of it” that some suggest central Europeans receive EU funds as humanitarian aid.

Hungary opened its markets when joining the EU and many Austrian and German companies are now producing huge profits from this, he added.

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The interview can be read online in German at diepresse.com.

Source: MTI