Minister highlights Hungary’s ‘historic achievements’ in protecting Schengen borders

The head of the government office spoke highly of the Hungarian government’s “historic achievements” in protecting the European Union’s Schengen borders and closing off a major migration route across the Balkans, at his annual hearing in the European affairs committee of parliament, on Tuesday.

Concerning the Balkans migration route, János Lázár said that the Hungarian government had managed to close that off in cooperation with Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, an effort which the European Commission had failed to support in 2015.

The government will insist “to the end” on its right “to determine who is allowed to stay in the country”, Lázár said.

The government is convinced that those rights must stay a national competency and cannot be transferred to Brussels.

Concerning the next parliamentary cycle between 2018-2022, Lázár said it would be “a major intellectual challenge” to define “how Hungary should participate in a new kind of European cooperation”, how “Brussels’s bureaucracy can be restricted” and how “good political directions can be set for Europe”. He added that

Hungary’s diplomacy and EU policy are both “determined by a culture of cooperation”.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI