Hungarian Foreign Minister discusses immigration and Schengen with Romanian counterpart in Bucharest

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Bucharest on Tuesday that Hungary’s government is doing everything possible to ensure Romania joins the European Union’s passport-free Schengen area before the end of the Hungarian EU presidency.

Romania’s Schengen membership

According to a ministry statement, Romania’s Schengen membership is in Hungary’s national interest, Szijjártó said after talks with Romania’s interior minister, noting that it would end long tailbacks at the border and open up new public road links.

The minister said Romania’s joining the Schengen area would also make it easier for Hungarian communities on either side of the border to stay in contact.

Noting that Romania is one of Hungary’s top export markets, he said the country’s Schengen membership would also be “extremely beneficial” for businesses.

“So we have only to gain from Romania’s Schengen membership, which is why we are doing everything possible to ensure that Romania can join the area during Hungary’s European Union presidency,” he said.

“We hope that the Western European countries won’t be hypocritical, either, and all those who have been voicing their support for this will support it,” Szijjártó said. “And we sincerely hope that those who vetoed Romania’s accession to the Schengen area last time won’t get in the way of European consensus and a joint European position this time.”

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said Hungary and Romania have signed an agreement on cross-border law enforcement cooperation.

Immigration

He pointed out that both countries are located along routes that in the past had been favoured by illegal migrants and “organised crime linked to them”. He said this problem would still exist if Romania and Hungary had not cracked down as hard as they had on illegal migration, people smuggling and organised crime.

He said Hungary and Romania have agreed to bolster cooperation in this area to uphold security, adding that both countries were protecting themselves and the rest of Europe from illegal migrants.

“And we will, of course, protect ourselves from illegal migrants even if they impose a penalty on us for it from Brussels because, for us, the safety of the Hungarian people comes first,” Szijjártó said.

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