Visegrád Four

Slovakia, Czech Republic to allow free movement across mutual border from Thursday

the czech republic prague

The leaders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia announced on Wednesday that the two countries will allow free movement across mutual border from Thursday, the Czech government office said in a press release.

The announcement came here when Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic paid his first official visit to the Czech Republic and met with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

The leaders discussed mutual relations, cooperation on opening their borders, addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the multiannual financial framework of the European Union (EU), and the cooperation between the Visegrad group (V4) which includes Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

The decision of allowing free movement had been made days ago but was announced on Wednesday as a surprise.

The two prime ministers stressed the need for continued bilateral cooperation, including corporations in regional platforms such as the V4. They also discussed the so-called recovery plan proposed by the European Commission.

“It was a very good visit and we will meet again on June 11 in Lednice, where, for the first time after the coronavirus (pandemic), there will be a physical summit of V4 prime ministers, where we will discuss even more together at the upcoming European Council summit on June 19,”

said Babis.

the czech republic prague
Read alsoSlovakia, Czech Republic to allow free movement across mutual border from Thursday

Hungarian FM Szijjártó discusses status of restrictions with regional counterparts

Foreign minister Szijjártó

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó discussed the status of coronavirus-related restrictions with his Austrian, Slovak and Czech counterparts in a videoconference on Wednesday.

Assessing his talks, he said on Facebook that he informed his counterparts of a restart of production by several multinational companies at their plants in Hungary.

He noted that the owners of these companies operate plants in the four Visegrad Group countries in addition to Germany and Austria and for this reason Hungary was ready to draft regulation allowing easier movement for people working for the same company within the region.

As regards school-leaving exams, Szijjártó said

Austria and Slovakia have agreed to exempt from a compulsory home quarantine students returning home to those two countries after taking their exams in Hungary.

He welcomed that Slovakia had abandoned its plan to make the entry of commuters to the country subject to a negative coronavirus test. This will allow Hungarian commuters to continue to freely cross into Slovakia at ten border stations, he said.

Szijjártó said he had asked Austria to reopen to commuters the crossing points at Jánossomorja and Alsószölnök and Slovakia to do the same at Tornanádaska and Létkes.

Szijjártó discusses easing epidemic restrictions with Bavaria EU affairs minister

Minister Szijjártó held a videoconference with Florian Herrmann, the German federal state’s minister of federal and European affairs and media, on Wednesday, and said that friendly relations with Bavaria were especially important to Hungary in the time of the epidemic.

In a video posted on Facebook after the videoconference, Szijjártó said 

Hungary and Bavaria are both focusing on a gradual, “cautious” easing of restrictions introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the consequences of those steps are unclear, Szijjártó said, adding that experts were warning of a second wave of the disease.

Similarly to Hungary,

Bavaria has developed a schedule for easing the restrictions,

and is carefully watching developments in Austria, a country where the pandemic hit earlier, Szijjártó said.

Social distancing and wearing face masks are among the most important measures in Bavaria, he said, adding that this was the case in Hungary, too. The ministers agreed that the virus would pose a challenge in the long term.

At the talks, the ministers reinforced their pledge to view economic cooperation between their countries as strategic, Szijjártó said. He noted that

Bavarian investors such as Audi, Siemens and Korr-Bremse provide 50,000 jobs in Hungary.

He welcomed the gradual resumption of production by major players in the car industry, which account for the bulk of Bavarian investments in Hungary.

Szijjártó called on the European Union to ease regulations on state support for large investments. The European Commission should approve “all kinds of state support” to boost investments, he said.

Szijjártó and Herrmann agreed to focus on cooperation in the defence industry and to further strengthen diplomatic ties.

The Hungarian consulate in Nuremberg is poised to open as soon as the pandemic situation allows, he said.

Read alsoCoronavirus – Hungary ready to ease the restrictions

V4 supports Libya’s anti-pandemic efforts, says Hungarian FM Szijjártó

visegrad group four v4

The Visegrad Group will provide 35 million euros to Libya, part of which will be directed to help that country’s efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic, the foreign minister said after a video conference of the EU’s foreign affairs council on Wednesday.

The V4 Hungary forms with the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia earlier agreed to allocate the aid to help Libya’s border protection operations, Péter Szijjártó told an online press conference.

At today’s meeting, however, they agreed on a separate allocation to help prevent the pandemic from triggering a new wave of illegal migration, he said, adding that in instable regions hundreds of thousands of people are considering to head for Europe.

The participants agreed, he said, that

Europe could not be safe until the situation caused by the virus remains serious in the regions surrounding the European Union.

This is why the situation in Africa and the western Balkans was also addressed, he said.

Hungary has so far provided support to six countries in the western Balkans, including consignments of face masks and protective clothing to boost their defence capabilities against a new wave of illegal migration, Szijjártó said. He noted that Hungary has so far received more than 80 million face masks from China.

“Hungary took appropriate anti-coronavirus measures early enough to become one of the most successful countries in Europe to slow down the spread of the virus,” he said.

Szijjártó said Ukraine was another issue on the council’s agenda. He reiterated Hungary’s position that

Ukraine should adhere to basic EU values that include the protection of minorities and their rights if it seeks to intensify cooperation with the EU.

Talks with the Ukrainian partners were encouraging, Szijjártó said, adding hope that “action would follow words”.

He noted Hungary’s support for the refurbishment of a health-care institution in eastern Ukraine and the donation of 100,000 face masks and other protective gear to the western Transcarpathia region.

Read alsoHungary to block NATO-Ukraine meetings until minority rights deal reached

Coronavirus and the Visegrád countries – Polish and Czech expectations

coronavirus hospital hungary

The Czech Republic reported that confirmed COVID-19 cases had surpassed 5,000 but health officials are confident that measures can soon be lifted.

“Recent developments have shown that we have managed to stop the uncontrolled spread of coronavirus and can prepare for a gradual and controlled return to normal life,” Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Twitter after a press briefing.

Vojtech projected that the country could have 10,600 cases by the end of April at the current infection rate, a significantly lower figure than the over 14,000 estimated last week.

Officials based the current projections on the country’s early actions in tackling the spread of COVID-19, including declaring a state of emergency 11 days after the first confirmed infection. The parliament voted on Tuesday to extend this till the end of April.

What’s more, the country quickly closed schools, shops and restaurants, border crossings, and implemented social distancing strategies as well as mandatory mask usage.

Vojtech Filip, first vice-chairman of the Czech Parliament’s the Chamber of Deputies, said the country started taking action in a timely manner, learning from its own development and from foreign experience, including that from China. The measures adopted were proved to be effective, he added.

On Monday, the government relaxed some limited measures and is planning to relax more after the Easter holiday, according to officials.

As of Wednesday evening, the country has had 5,221 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 233 recoveries and 99 deaths.

Visegrad cooperation successful even in difficult times, says Hungarian FM Szijjártó

hungary-foreign-minister-Szijjártó

Cooperation between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has proved to be successful even in the current difficult period, with the Visegrad Group countries planning to intensify their joint efforts in the fight against the novel coronavirus, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday.

The current situation has highlighted the practical advantages of V4 cooperation because all four members have helped one another in transporting citizens home from abroad, Szijjártó told an online press conference on Facebook after a videoconference with V4 counterparts. He also said that Polish doctors returning from Italy had been sharing their experiences with doctors in the other three V4 countries.

Eastern Partnership also featured on the agenda of the meeting, Szijjártó said, adding that

the pandemic would “completely redraw the global economic and political map, a development the European Union should be preparing for”.

“As the EU will have a need for allies, friends and partners, it is obviously useful for it to develop closer ties with its eastern neighbours,” he said.

Szijjártó said he had agreed with his V4 counterparts to set up a 250,000 euro solidarity fund within the International Visegrad Fund for six partner states in the east: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The ministers were also in agreement that “noticeable and drastic” steps were required to give a boost to the Eastern Partnership programme which had stagnated over the recent period, he said.

Szijjártó said he had proposed scrapping the EU sanctions against Belarus, stepping up NATO-Georgia cooperation, signing a new strategic agreement with Azerbaijan and making sure that Moldova receives the 70 million euros that the EU had approved but then refused to transfer citing an “unfair pretext”.

Visegrád Four are among the best in Europe in the number of hospital beds

coronavirus-Hungary-hospital

A recent study, conducted by NimbleFins, is rating European countries on the basis of their hospitals’ capacity, using some of the latest data. The study highlights which European countries might have the best healthcare infrastructure to deal with the rapidly growing number of COVID-19 patients, Kafkadesk reports.

Hospital beds per capita

The study first compares the number of hospital beds in European countries. It might be surprising, but Visegrád Group countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary) are all ranked high among the most well-prepared countries to face the rapidly growing number of people that need serious care.

Germany has the most hospital beds per capita in Europe, with 8 beds per 1,000 people. Austria follows right after, with 7.27 beds per 1,000 people, but the Visegrád countries put up a good fight against them. Hungary is placed 3rd, not much behind Austria, with 7.02 beds. The Czech Republic (6.63) and Poland (6.62) come right after, but Slovakia only placed 8th in this category. This means that 3 out of the Visegrád Four are in the top 5 countries with the highest number of hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants. Surprisingly, the other end of the spectrum includes the UK (2.54), Denmark (2.5), and Sweden (2.22) as the worst three countries in this category.

Hospital beds per 1,000 people aged 70 or older

The second category of the study ranks countries who are better equipped to care for their elderly population in particular. What they found is that Central European countries are better equipped to cater to their elderly than many other leading European countries. This is very important because older people are more prone to the severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Visegrád Group countries dominate this category even more than the previous one. As the chart shows, all of them are in the top 5. Only Austria was able to get a place among them as the 4th country with the most hospital beds per 1,000 people aged 70 or older. Hungary (54.9) placed 3rd this time as well.

It is interesting to note that Hungary’s elderly population constitutes 12.78% of the country’s current total population. The Visegrád Group countries are taking the prize everywhere, as they are in the top 5 countries with the lowest number of elderly people in their respective countries. To be exact, Hungary and the Czech Republic are tied for 5th place.

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Visegrád Four and German FMs discuss pressing EU issues

v4-visegrad-group

The foreign ministers of the Visegrád (V4) group — namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, and Germany on Friday held a video conference to discuss pressing issues concerning European Union (EU), the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

The foreign ministers were originally meant to meet in Prague for the conference but it was changed to a video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The ministers discussed the priorities of the German EU presidency, EU relations with the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, the EU’s role in global affairs, the COVID-19 outbreak, migration and asylum policies, and the situation in Syria. Together, the foreign ministers signed a joint declaration urging for a united and effective Europe on the global stage.

“Close cooperation between the V4 and Germany is crucial for events in Central Europe, but also for the future of Europe,” said Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek.

On the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foreign ministers agreed that the solution to the problem could not only be at national level, but that it was a common European and global problem where common resources would have to be involved, according to the release.

Official: Hungary up to meeting new migration challenges

migrants on the street

Hungary’s border fence and asylum laws are sufficient to meet migration-related challenges of the coming period, Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communications, said in an interview published on Friday.

The government is ready to take further steps if needed, he told the daily Magyar Hírlap.

Kovács insisted that western European countries now contained parallel societies due to decades of immigration, “which has hardly been a success story”. “Most of the economic migrants” who settled in western Europe “did so illegally”, he added.

nature-hungary hortobágy
Read alsoSurvey: Climate change, migration top Hungarians’ list of security concerns

“Europe is now forced to face the harsh reality of hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to breach the EU’s external borders from the direction of Turkey and the Mediterranean,” he added, accusing the bloc of showing “helplessness and indecisiveness”.

Hungary’s recommendations for solutions to the problem have fallen on deaf ears, he said.

Brussels is still focused on finding a pan-European solution and wants to take over control of migration and asylum policy, Kovács said. “Obviously, this won’t work.”

“Hungary and the Visegrád Group have set a good example when it comes to effective national solutions.”

migrants on the street
Read alsoOfficial: Hungary up to meeting new migration challenges

Kovács insisted that NGOs were “gradually taking over” the management of migration, which he added was “a threat in itself”.

Kovács criticised Europe’s handling of the migration crisis, saying that the bloc had only carried out “bogus measures” relating to border protection and the construction of transit zones.

“Frontex, for instance, added 1,500 border guards while Greece alone has just asked for 10,000,” he said.

“What’s worse is that they haven’t even understood that help should be taken to the points where the problems arise instead of importing trouble to Europe.” Kovács said Europe should work on helping to stabilise Syria, Libya and other crisis zones.

V4 cooperating in times of trouble, says Orbán after meeting on new virus

v4-visegrad-group

Commenting on a V4 meeting on Wednesday to discuss the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the leaders of the Visegrad Group were cooperating well “in times of trouble as well as in good times”.

The coronavirus outbreak was high on the agenda of the meeting in Prague of member states’ prime ministers.

Referring to confirmed Covid-19 cases in Poland and the Czech republic, Orbán said it had been “a good decision” to hold the meeting in view of the fact that the virus had reached the Visegrad countries.

Although there are as yet no confirmed cases in Hungary, “we cannot pretend that Hungary can stay out of this,” Orbán said. The country has to be prepared to contend with the virus, he added.

At the meeting, the heads of government reviewed the risks and protective measures regarding Covid-19, and coordinated their governments’ actions, Orbán said.

The outbreak poses a threat to public health and the economy, he said. The meeting primarily tackled the public health issue as “people are more important than money and the economy,” he said.

Orbán said he had briefed his counterparts on the steps Hungary had taken to fight the outbreak.

Hungary has an accredited laboratory equipped to diagnose an infection within hours and has set up screening controls at its border crossings, he said.

He praised the “disciplined” preparation efforts in the other V4 member states, saying Hungary “will learn a lot from this” and may in future rely on the other countries’ help in fighting the virus.

Visegrád Four ministers reiterate support for EU enlargement

v4 balkan integration

The foreign ministers of the Visegrád Group (V4), namely, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, reiterated their support for the start of European Union (EU) accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia at a meeting here on Thursday.

“Continuing the integration of the Western Balkans and towards the EU is a long-term priority for the Visegrád Group,” said Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek.

European commissioner Várhelyi
Read alsoEuropean commissioner Várhelyi: Western Balkan countries need credible EU integration outlook

The Czech Republic, now holding the presidency of the V4, hosted the meeting of the V4 and Western Balkans.

“The Western Balkans is surrounded by member states of the European Union. It is in our geostrategic interest to get this region into the EU,” said Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, at a press conference after the meeting.

pápa air base
Read alsoHungary backs NATO accession of Balkan states, says Fidesz MP

On the fringes of the meeting, a cooperation memorandum between the Western Balkan Fund and the International Visegrád Fund was signed.

Survey: Hungarians have least debt relative to income in Europe

Hungarian salary coronavirus

Hungarians have the lowest amounts of debt relative to their incomes in a European comparison, but many still experience difficulty with paying their bills, according to a fresh survey by receivables management company Intrum.

Of the Visegrád Group countries, Hungary registered the highest score on Intrum’s financial wellbeing barometer with 6.24 points. Slovakia scored 6.19, the Czech Republic 6.16 and Poland 5.54 points on the barometer which factors in the ability to pay bills on time, credit freedom, saving for the future and financial literacy.

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Read alsoFinance minister: Hungary aims to maintain fiscal discipline, reduce debt

Hungary’s relatively high score can be attributed primarily to the low volume of retail lending stock.

Hungary had the highest level of credit freedom out of all European countries.

Károly Deszpot, director of sales and business development at Intrum, said more than three-quarters of Hungarian respondents said they had not taken out any loans over the past six months, factoring in maxed-out credit cards.

The last couple of years saw an increase in the retail lending stock, mainly due to rising property prices and bigger mortgages, he said.

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Read alsoThe debt of Hungarian hospitals has greatly increased

As regards the barometer’s other pillars, almost 40 percent of the survey’s Hungarian respondents said they had been late with bill payments on at least one occasion over the past six months.

Hungarians’ ability to manage their savings is slightly below the European average, while the country is ranked 12th in terms of financial literacy.

Germany registered the highest score (6.89) on the barometer, followed by Austria (6.77) and Sweden (6.72), with Greece registering the lowest score (5.30).

Orbán: Austria ‘natural partner’ of V4

visegrád four and austria

Austria is a “natural partner” of Hungary and the Visegrad Group, and they can cooperate in many areas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a news conference in Prague after a summit of the leaders of the V4 countries and Austria on Thursday.

As an investor and trading partner, Austria is important for central Europe, Orbán said. “It will also remain an important security partner for us in future because it is in the same shoes as us on the issue of migration,” he added.

If migrants “break into” Austria through Hungary, they will either end up staying there or will travel on to Germany, Orbán said, adding that Hungarian border protection was therefore in Austria’s interest.

visegrád four meeting
Read alsoOrbán: V4’s heft in Europe has grown

Meanwhile, he said the summit’s major achievement was to identify areas of cooperation that include migration, security, border protection, competitiveness, climate protection and EU enlargement. The areas of “non-cooperation” have also been defined, one of which is nuclear energy, he added.

Orbán said the summit had allowed him the opportunity to congratulate Sebastian Kurz on forming his second government and to learn firsthand about its plans.

Also, the meeting covered important foreign policy issues such as EU enlargement and the common budget, he said.

The prime minister said the V4 countries were “signalling to the outside world” their aim to seek cooperation with other European countries and to avoid isolation.

Orbán called on Czech counterpart Andrej Babis, the current holder of the V4 presidency, to invite western Balkan countries seeking EU membership to a conference on Europe’s future, since this would concern those countries as well.

Answering a question, Orbán said the V4 stood united against any diversion of cohesion funding to finance new climate protection goals. “If we want more Europe, we need more money, but not at the expense of old programmes,” he said.

Fidesz: Budapest mayor’s pact with V4 mayors ‘immigration alliance of liberal leftists’

v4 captial cities

Commenting on a recent pact signed by the mayors of the capital cities of the Visegrad Group countries in Budapest, the spokesman of the co-ruling Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group said the agreement amounted to “no more than a pro-migration alliance of liberal, left-wing politicians”.

Lőrinc Nacsa noted at a news conference that

Gergely Karácsony, the Mayor of Budapest, had signed the agreement at the campus of the Central European University, which he dubbed “the Soros University” after its founder, the billionaire George Soros.

Nacsa insisted that this location indicated that Soros, “an immigration billionaire”, was striving to gain power and influence in the V4 countries. Karácsony, he added, had “openly entered into this pro-migration alliance on behalf of Budapest”.

Karácsony, he said, had joined mayors who “want to implement Soros’s open society”.

Brussels, he insisted, had promised EU money to pay for a plan backed by Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the European Commission, “to welcome migrants to Budapest and other central European capitals”.

Mayors of V4 countries' capitals sign Pact of Free Cities
Read alsoMayors of V4 countries’ capitals sign “Pact of Free Cities”

Mayors of V4 countries’ capitals sign “Pact of Free Cities”

Mayors of V4 countries' capitals sign Pact of Free Cities

The mayors of the four capitals of the so-called Visegrad or V4 countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) signed a joint declaration in order to combine their forces in seeking European Union (EU) funding for their respective cities here on Monday.

“We, the mayors of Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw hereby commit to supporting and jointly advocating towards EU institutions, agencies and decision makers prospective EU urban programs that would provide more direct funding for European cities,” the mayors said in a document entitled the “Pact of Free Cities.”

The signatories also commit to “coordinating efforts to advocate city-tailored solutions in the European policies, especially in the Cohesion Policy, European employment, environmental, climate, energy, transport and economic policies, as well as during the legislative construction of the European Pillar of Social Rights.”

Mayors of V4 countries' capitals sign Pact of Free Cities
Photo: facebook.com/karacsonygergely/

The document was signed in Budapest by Mayors Matus Vallo of Bratislava, Gergely Karácsony of Budapest, Zdenek Hrib of Prague and Rafal Trzaskowski of Warsaw.

The city leaders also vowed to share their “best practices in smart, evidence-based and socially aware city management, especially in the field of sustainable city planning, climate protection, social inclusion, housing, transportation, the digital agenda or any other field of mutual interest.”

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Read alsoLocal elections – Karácsony hails ‘historic victory’ in Budapest

Foreign minister: Central Europe ‘continent’s engine of growth’

hungary and japan relations

The importance of central Europe has gradually increased in recent years and the region has become Europe’s engine of growth, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Tokyo on Friday.

Thec, Szijjártó told a seminar in central and eastern Europe at the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro). But now several economic indicators show them in the lead, he added.

The economic growth of the Visegrád Group is more than double of the European average and the group is also strong in terms of its political cooperation, he added.

All four V4 countries fulfil important positions in the new European Commission, Szijjártó said. Commissioners from the Czech Republic and Slovakia are vice-presidents, the Polish commissioners oversees agriculture and the Hungarian is in charge of enlargement, he added.

V4 members together represent a market of 64 million people. If they were a single country, they would be the second largest EU member, he said. The unemployment rate and public debt in the V4 are much lower than the EU average, he added.

The “secret of success” in central Europe is that countries in the region pursue rational policies based on common sense, he said. In economic terms, this means that taxes in central Europe are the lowest within the EU, he added.

Another reason for success is that central European countries effectively maintain monetary and fiscal discipline, he said.

They have proven that it is possible to get rid of the old dogma according to which there is a binary choice between economic growth or fiscal discipline, he said, adding that Hungary had proved that both can be accomplished simultaneously, Szijjarto said.

He said that the Hungarian government had recognised concerns connected to labour and has responded by reforming vocational training and higher education.

Concerning the future success of the European economy, Szijjártó said it was worth taking into consideration that while many experts talked about the significance of German-French cooperation, trade between the V4 and Germany was 70 percent higher than between France and Germany, so the region has a huge influence on the EU’s competitiveness.

A dispute is ongoing concerning Europe’s future, which mainly concerns the dichotomy of a strong Brussels coupled with weak member states, he said.

Central Europe’s position is that a strong Europe can only be built on the foundation of strong member states, the minister added.

Central Europe rejects western European attempts to harmonise tax across the bloc because this would involve raising taxes in the region. “We insist on low taxes because they are crucial to our competitiveness.”

Commenting on security policy, he said central European countries had a clearly anti-migration stand and insisted on protecting borders and upholding their right to decide whom to allow in.

Szijjártó noted that Japan is Hungary’s top Asian investor, with 170 Japanese companies employing 35,000 Hungarians.

The Hungarian government has signed strategic cooperation agreements with six Japanese companies, he added.

V4 expects new European Commission to speed up EU enlargement – UPDATE

visegrad group v4 foreign ministers

The Visegrad Group expects the new European Commission to speed up European Union enlargement, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday.

After meeting his V4 counterparts in Prague, he said that “one of the greatest failures of the previous European Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker was bringing the enlargement process to an almost complete halt”.

“This is why it is our expectation from the new European Commission to open a new era in EU enlargement, with special regard to the integration of the Western Balkans,” he said.

Szijjártó said that enlargement would be in good hands with Hungary’s commissioner Olivér Várhelyi.

“The V4 has agreed to support the Hungarian enlargement commissioner’s efforts to speed up integration,” he said, adding that the EU’s policy “of blocking enlargement” over the past years “goes entirely against the bloc’s interests”.

“The swiftest possible integration of the Western Balkans is in the European Union and Hungary’s political, security, economic and strategic interests as it helps the bloc to resist migration pressure effectively,” he said.

Szijjártó branded the outgoing Finnish EU presidency “a failure”, noting that it had not opened a single new negotiating chapter for enlargement during its six-month term ending on Dec. 31. This, he said, had never happened before. “Instead of focusing on their real job, the Finns spent their time lecturing central European countries,” he said.

Asked by MTI whether the meeting had addressed German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer’s new proposals on the acceptance of refugees, Szijjártó said the topic had not been raised individually. “But the V4’s position is clear,” Szijjártó said.

“We are not willing to admit any illegal migrants into central Europe. The success and security of central Europe is thanks to our pursuit of a firm anti-migration policy, and this will endure,” the foreign minister said.

The Visegrad countries insist on keeping their national identities and maintaining their cultural, religious and historical heritage, he said. “This is why central Europe is one of the most successful regions of the European Union today, and its engine of growth.”

“We do not tolerate any kind of pressure and we Hungarians insist on our right to decide whom to allow into our country and with whom we wish to live,” he added.

Migration must be stopped at Schengen borders, says interior minister

unhcr migration kids

Protecting the European Union’s external Schengen borders is crucial when it comes to stopping Illegal migration to Europe, Interior Minister Sandor Pintér said after talks with his Visegrád Group and Austrian counterparts in Prague on Thursday.

“When it comes to migration, the most important thing is clearly to protect of the external Schengen borders,” Pintér told a joint press conference. “At the same time, help must be taken to where the problems arise.”

Though Hungary is capable of protecting its own Schengen border for the time being, it is happy to accept help from its Visegrád partners, the minister said.

Pintér thanked the other three V4 countries for help they provided to protect Hungary’s borders from the inflow of migrants. Hungary provides similar assistance to the Western Balkan countries, he noted.

He said the talks had also touched on the procurement of police equipment. Coordinating the purchase of police equipment among the V4 countries would also significantly aid the activities of EU border agency Frontex, Pintér added.

The ministers were in agreement that Britain and the EU must maintain cooperation in security and their information-sharing practices after Brexit.

Pintér said Hungary had proposed at the meeting that the V4 should coordinate their response to a potential no-deal Brexit.

The ministers also said the drafting of the new pact on migration and asylum proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would be a good opportunity to assess and reevaluate the issue of migration.

Orbán: Central Europe is ‘Europe’s future’

Addressing a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Prague on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that thirty years ago central Europeans had been self-confident enough to declare their region Europe’s future. “And knowing our achievements in light of Europe’s situation we can say with all due modesty that, today, we are indeed the future of Europe”.

“We are ready for this mission,” Orbán said. “Thirty years ago we central Europeans showed that we could not only die for our countries and for Europe but could live and work for them too.”

“Today, we share not only a common destiny but common goals too,” Orbán said. “The cooperation of central European countries is written into the hearts of the people of central Europe”. This is why the coming years would be about the success of central Europe and the Visegrád Group, he added.

Orbán said that the Czech and Polish anti-communist resistance had served as a model for young Hungarians in the 1980s.

orbán in prague
Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher

This helped Hungarians to begin dismantling the communist system, he said, adding that it was now clear that belonging to the ’68 generation meant something radically different in West than in central Europe.

He said that whereas the ’68 generation of the West strived to dismantle the Europe of free nation states and Christian culture, “our ’68-ers want to regain and protect these values.”

The message of 1968 in central Europe is still the same, he said. “We want to decide our own destiny.”

“We want to live as a free nation, not as an imperial colony or subordinate,” Orbán said.

“We are central European democrats and we must protect the sovereignty of nation states,” the PM said. “Because abandoning this [principle] would end our democracy,” he said.

He said it was not a new ideological system that would improve Europe today. “We need simple human things: to live our own central European lives, to honour and protect our families, to enjoy our freedom, love our country and to be proud of our nation.”

“Central Europeans have their own language: the language of freedom, independence and solidarity with one another.” “This language gives us an independent and distinct voice in the large family of European nations,” Orbán said. “This is why central Europe today is not only a geographical concept but a political, economic and cultural reality.”

All the premiers of the Visegrad countries — Czech leader Andrej Babis, Polish leader Mateusz Morawiecki and Slovakian premier Peter Pellegrini — addressed the commemoration, together with Wolfgang Schauble, President of the German Bundestag.