Minister in UN: European decision makers should return to common sense

Hungary is facing a double pressure: while it has so far received 830,000 refugees from the east, it has also prevented 110,000 illegal migrants from entering the country from the south, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva on Friday.

According to a statement from his ministry, Szijjártó said that Hungarian authorities catered for everybody fleeing from the war in Ukraine, while continued to deny entry to illegal migrants along the southern border where “violence has reached new levels”.

At a time when the war in Ukraine impacts the economy and energy supplies “European decision makers should return to common sense and make decisions that will not jeopardise Europe’s competitiveness and security rather than ones based on sentiments or ideologies”, the statement quoted Szijjártó as saying.

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“They need to understand that 40 percent of Europe’s gas supply sources could not be replaced overnight… and that introduction of a global minimum tax would further hit Europe’s shrinking competitiveness and risk hundreds of thousands of jobs,” the minister said.

He noted that Hungary had supported all sanctions against Russia but added that it would not back any measure that could jeopardise the country’s energy supplies.