Schengen

Migration pressure growing on Hungary-Serbia border

Budapest, July 20 (MTI) – Migrants arriving via Macedonia and Bulgaria are putting the Hungarian border with Serbia under increasing pressure, and migrants are so determined to reach western Europe that they are willing to resort to violence, the prime minister’s security advisor told public television on Wednesday.

György Bakondi said that in the first quarter of the year, 4,500 migrants had tried to break through the Hungarian border and in the second quarter this had risen to 10,500. If the pressure grows even further then the situation “will be complicated in the Balkans and in the whole of the European Union,” Bakondi told news channel M1.

More and more people are of the opinion that Europe is not able to handle mass migration on such a scale, and they believe that national governments and Brussels should be taking resolute steps to protect the bloc, he said, referring to violent episodes in Hungarian migrant reception centres and terrorist attacks in other European countries.

He said he hoped that the European Union would be able to work out a security system that enables real refugees to gain political asylum while keeping terrorists and economic migrants at bay.

Photo: MTI/AP/Marko Drobnjakovic

Fidesz: Hungary’s border fence ‘functioning well’

Budapest (MTI) – Hungary’s fence along its southern border has stood the test of time, and measures taken on July 5 to tighten border controls have proven effective, Lajos Kósa said on Monday.

“No one coming from Serbia to Hungary can enter the EU’s territory illegally,” the head of parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee told a press conference after a committee session in Roszke, near the Serbian border.

The transit zone set up on the border operates in an orderly way and has the appropriate capacity to process asylum requests, he said.

Illegal entrants stopped within eight kilometres of the border are escorted back over the border and offered an opportunity to apply for asylum at a transit zone, Kósa said.

A significant proportion of migrants are not escaping persecution but are bypassing a legal route into western Europe in the hope of gaining a better standard of living, Kósa said. He insisted that 95 percent of arrivals are non-cooperative and the vast majority hand false identity papers to the authorities. On the basis of data gathered at Hungarian transit zones, 70 percent of arrivals have already been registered by the authorities of another EU country, and they come to Hungary knowing that their asylum requests should be processed elsewhere.

Kósa said that investigations carried out do not support reports that Hungarian police and soldiers have used devices against migrants which are not permitted. The prosecutor is examining the reports, but what it is certain that the kind of devices police are accused of employing have not been provided to them.

Tamás Harangozó, the committee’s (Socialist) deputy chairman, said that there were “huge holes” in the government’s claim that Hungary is the Schengen zone’s strongest protector. Over 90 percent of arriving migrants slip through the hands of the authorities. And to this day, tens of thousands pass through the country, he said, adding that the government had failed to achieve its goals either through physical or legal means.

Ádám Mirkóczki, the Jobbik member of the committee, said fulfilling the Dublin accords and protecting the Hungarian borders were incompatible aims. There is no point in building physical barriers if more than 90 percent of arrivals disappear from the country, he said, adding that Jobbik proposes that an independent border guard should be reestablished to protect the country.

Ágnes Vadai, a Democratic Coalition lawmaker who sits as an independent, said the political leaders of the ministries of interior and defence should have given briefings to the committee rather than the heads of the police and the army.

Károly Papp, the chief of Hungary’s national police force, said in reply to a question put to him by Vadai that he had proposed extending the state of emergency to protect public security in light of a number of incidents in several locations in the country connected with mass migration.

Benkõ Tibor; Papp Károly; Végh Zsuzsanna

Photo: MTI

Hungary’s govt rejects EU ‘threat’ to fine anti-quota countries

Budapest (MTI) – The Hungarian government firmly rejects European plans to impose a fine on countries against a “forced settlement” of migrants, the government information centre said on Monday.

In a statement, they insisted that “unlike several other countries, Hungary has enforced EU rules from the beginning, it has protected Europe’s Schengen borders, it has stopped and registered entrants, separating economic migrants and refugees from war zones”.

The number of asylum-seekers in Hungary exceeded 177,000 last year, and 23,000 in 2016, the statement added. The Hungarian state spends a monthly 140,000 forints (EUR 450) on services for one asylum-seeker, “nearly twice as much as the net minimum wage,” authors of the statement said.

On the other hand, the EU would fine Hungary 78 million forints for each rejected migrant, “the equivalent of a sum a Hungarian employee makes in 40 years”, the document said. At the same time, the bloc “spends one million forints on a Hungarian national”, it added.

In its statement, the information centre also warned that the European plans are aimed at a “permanent distribution mechanism”, while the number of new entrants to Europe cannot be predicted.

Photo: MTI (in Serbia)

Poland to send second contingent to help patrol Hungary border

Warsaw, July 11 (MTI) – Poland will send another contingent of border guards to help patrol Hungary’s southern border, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced after a meeting with his Visegrad Four (V4) counterparts in Warsaw on Monday.

Last year Poland, which recently took over the rotating presidency of the Visegrad Group from the Czech Republic, sent 55 border guards to help Hungary with its border protection efforts.

Blaszczak said the protection of the European Union’s external borders will remain a priority of the V4 under Poland’s presidency.

Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér said the help Hungary will receive from its V4 partners will allow the country to better enforce its new border regulations that entered into effect earlier this month. He said that only 17 migrants managed to get past border police and enter the country since the new rules have been in effect.

Under Hungary’s new border rules, illegal entrants stopped within eight kilometres of the border are to be escorted back over the border and offered an opportunity to apply for asylum at a transit zone. Migrants who comply with authorities and apply for asylum will not be expelled from the country and their appeals will be processed without delay.

Hungarian foreign minister: Austrian border checks ‘unjustified’

Budapest, July 7 (MTI) – Ad-hoc checks recently introduced by Austria on its border with Hungary are “unjustified”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday.

Austria reinstated strict border checks on Monday in a bid to catch people smugglers, bringing traffic on the Hungarian-Austrian border to a standstill on multiple occasions. Hungarian authorities later also began checking people entering Hungary from Austria.

Szijjártó said border controls were needed on Hungary’s southern borders with Serbia and Croatia but not on the border with Austria. He said that if Austria “truly wants to protect the Schengen zone”, it should help protect the bloc’s external borders.

Regarding Hungary’s border checks, the minister said the country had a right to implement them. He said it was “strange” that while “tens of thousands of Hungarians are suffering” because of Austria’s decision to introduce checks between two Schengen area member states, Austria “is the one complaining” about Hungary.

On Tuesday, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka criticised Hungary for its implementation of border checks, also calling them unjustified.

Photo: MTI

Trucks form 12km tailback at Austrian border

Budapest, July 5 (MTI) – Trucks on their way to Austria have formed a 12km tailback at Hegyeshalom due to ad-hoc checks by Austrian authorities, a spokesman for regional police in north-western Hungary said on Tuesday afternoon.

The tailback at a point earlier in the day was 27km, said Tamás Füves. The waiting time for truck drivers is currently about 3 hours, the police said on its website.

Cars are being allowed through unimpeded but their passage continues to be slow, Füves said.

He asked car drivers to visit the police’s website police.hu for information on current waiting times at border crossing points.

 

Trucks waiting up to 6 hours for crossing into Austria

Budapest, July 4 (MTI) – Truck drivers on their way to Austria may have to wait up to 6 hours at Hegyeshalom due to ad-hoc checks by Austrian authorities, police in western Hungary said on Monday.

The trucks waiting at the border have formed a 20km tailback, a police spokesperson said, adding that although cars were being allowed through unimpeded, their passage was slow.

Trucks waiting up to 6 hours for crossing into Austria
Trucks waiting up to 6 hours for crossing into Austria

Police have asked car drivers are to choose Sopron or Vámosszabadi as alternative crossing points, and to visit the police’s website for information on current waiting times.

Photo: MTI

Austria, Hungary defence, interior ministers discuss migration

St Martin, Austria, June 17 (MTI) – The defence and interior ministers of Hungary and Austria discussed recent developments in migration and related tasks at their meeting in St Martin (Rábaszentmárton) in south-eastern Austria on Friday.

István Simicskó and Sándor Pintér of Hungary, and Hans Peter Doskozil and Wolfgang Sobotka of Austria agreed that Europe must be protected along its Schengen borders in which efforts Hungary and Austria must jointly participate using experience gained through the Visegrad Four cooperation.

Defence Minister Doskozil told a press conference after the meeting that it is not enough “to wait for a European level solution,” member countries must “do as much as they can” through bilateral cooperation. He noted that both Austria and Hungary will continue to face migration pressure with 60-70 percent of migrants seeking to reach to western Europe through the Balkans.

Interior Minister Sobotka repeatedly stated Austria’s decision to accept 37,500 migrants this year. He said Austria and Hungary will jointly submit proposals to help drafting an effective European level policy on protecting borders.

Defence Minister Simicskó said the two countries’ views came closer on the migration issue.

Interior Minister Pintér announced setting up a joint working committee to coordinate on migration related tasks and cooperation and draft proposals on solutions.

Photo: MTI

Meeting of European Union foreign ministers – Szijjártó urges speeding up European integration of Eastern Partnership countries

Brussels, May 23 (MTI) – The European integration of the Eastern Partnership countries must be speeded up both for the sake of stability in those countries and Europe’s security, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Monday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Péter Szijjártó said the security situation in the EU’s eastern neighbouring regions is extremely “fragile”. Out of the Eastern Partnership states, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia are all involved in disputes that directly affect Europe’s security.

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The countries involved are in need of positive feedback from the EU, because without it support for the governments in favour of integration in those countries will decrease dramatically, Szijjártó said.

He called on the EU to grant visa-free status to Georgia and Ukraine with immediate effect, given that those countries have both fulfilled all criteria for receiving it.

The minister said Hungary recommended signing a strategic partnership agreement with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, as it is the EU’s only source for energy diversity in the short run.

Hungary also recommended opening up EU funds for Belarus, arguing that trade relations with it are expected to be “especially beneficial” for the EU.

Szijjártó: EU foreign ministers adopt all of Hungary’s proposals at meeting

A closing statement adopted at a meeting of the European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday included every proposal put forward by Hungary, Szijjártó said.

The bloc’s top diplomats were in Brussels to discuss resolving Europe’s drawn-out migration crisis.

Hungary’s proposals included the ten-point “Schengen 2.0” action plan put forward by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last month. The meeting’s closing statement says the Foreign Affairs Council will look further into the prime minister’s plan which aims to strengthen Europe’s security by protecting the Schengen system.

The ministers also approved the plan to examine the possibility of setting up hotspots for registering migrants outside the EU’s borders so that it can be determined whether a migrant is eligible for refugee status before they enter the bloc’s territory. This is especially important seeing as how the readmission agreement between the EU and Turkey has not been effective enough, Szijjártó said.

Szijjártó said the move to set up hotspots outside the EU would also help save tens of thousands of lives, because the system could convince other potential migrants not to attempt the journey to Europe. It could also destroy the business model of people smugglers, he added.

The closing statement also touches on border protection and providing financial aid to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and the Kurdish region of Iraq where hundreds of thousands of refugees are being tended to, Szijjártó said.

The ministers agreed that the migrant pressure on Europe was likely to increase in the long run, as there are 30 million-35 million people living in Europe’s neighbouring regions, who, given their living conditions, could decide to set off for Europe at any time.

Photo: MTI

Hungarian foreign minister discusses ‘Schengen 2.0’ with Bulgarian counterpart

Budapest, May 18 (MTI) – Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó held bilateral talks with Bulgarian counterpart Daniel Mitov in Sofia on Wednesday. Among the topics discussed was the Hungarian government’s “Schengen 2.0” action plan, the ministry said.

Szijjártó met Mitov on the sidelines of the Council of Europe foreign ministers’ meeting, and the two also discussed the European Commission’s migrant quotas, the ministry statement said.

The two foreign ministers were in agreement that the commission’s proposal to fine countries that reject the mandatory migrant quota was “unacceptable”. They shared the view that the protection of the EU’s external borders must be given priority.

They were in agreement that the commission must not be allowed to reduce the powers of member states or violate their sovereignty, the statement said.

Photo: MTI

Schengen ministers discuss migrant crisis in Hungary

Budapest, May 13 (MTI) – Interior ministers of countries of the Schengen zone met in Szeged, in southern Hungary, on Friday to discuss border issues in connection with the migrant crisis.

The ministers adopted a concluding statement at the end of the meeting, Hungary’s Sándor Pintér told a press conference. The meeting aimed to harmonise countries’ responses to challenges arising from the crisis and to help joint efforts by sharing best practices and regrouping resources. An example for this was when countries helped Slovenia with live forces to protect the EU external borders.

Related article:
SCHENGEN MINISTERS MEET IN SOUTH HUNGARY

Hungary’s Justice Minister László Trócsányi noted the importance of adhering to and enforcing laws. Many countries failed to observe the Dublin Regulations and as a result Hungary had to complete the registration of more than 190,000 people. Laws must also be effective, he said, adding that 1,145 people have been resettled of the 160,000 laid down in a ruling of the European Council last September.

Photo: MTI

Schengen ministers meet in south Hungary

Budapest, May 12 (MTI) – Representatives of countries in the European Union’s Schengen regime gathered in southern Hungary’s Szeged on Thursday, for a forum with issues around migration in its focus.

The delegations from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia, Norway and Romania were informed by the Hungarian police about local measures to stem illegal immigration, about migration tendencies and routes, as well as about related international cooperation.

Representatives of the Hungarian armed forces then showed the conference the technical equipment used in controlling the country’s borders.

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József Seres, head of the regional immigration office, said his office had received a total 3,600 applications from asylum seekers since the beginning of the year.

Photo: MTI

Hungary’s government plans further border measures

Budapest, May 6 (MTI) – The Hungarian government is planning further security measures at and around the EU external border, state secretary at the Interior Ministry Károly Kontrát said on Friday.

The ministry will submit an amendment bill to parliament with the aim of ensuring that not a single migrant can stay illegally on Hungarian soil, he told a press conference. Accordingly, anyone stopped by police within 8km of the state border will placed in a transit zone unless they have committed a crime.

Here, they will be able to submit a request for asylum and can expect fast processing, the state secretary said. For these migrants, special border processing rules will apply and they will not be deported for staying illegally in Hungary.

Fully 99 percent of migrants are caught within 8km of the border, Kontrát said.

He said the amendment to the law on state borders, asylum and border entry and stays in Hungary by third-country nationals will be scheduled for a debate by lawmakers on May 17. He noted that the government had recently allocated another 9.3 billion forints (EUR 30m) for fortifying the border fence to the south.

Addressing the same press conference, government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said the Hungarian government is doing everything it can to prevent abuses of the law by migrants, despite the fact that even self-acclaimed human rights organisations on the Greek and other European borders are helping illegal migrants reach Europe.

Photo: MTI

Over 10,000 cross Hungary’s border illegally this year

Budapest, May 4 (MTI) – A total of 10,567 migrants crossed Hungary’s border illegally by May 3 this year, the national police headquarters’ information service reported online on Wednesday.

During the same period of last year, 37,329 illegal entrants were registered, police.hu said.

In previous years, the number of illegal border crossings was significantly lower, only 4,299 for instance in 2014, the service said.

Orbán: EU at Turkey’s mercy

Berlin (MTI) – The European Union is at the mercy of Turkey, a situation that is “never good” as the EU’s security should not be put in the hands of a non-EU power, Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, said in an interview in German weekly Wirtschaftswoche on Friday.

The prime minister said that he had accepted the EU’s Turkey strategy on condition that a border protection system would be put in place.

“A continent should be able to defend itself,” he said.

Orbán noted that the EU members would soon pay Turkey 3 billion euros and then another 3 billion euros and no one can see when this will end. In June, Europe will face another challenge as Turkey will insist on a no-visa regime and will let refugees go to Europe if it does not get the waiver, he said, insisting that Europe should protect itself from that wave of refugees.

The prime minister called it unfair that Hungary had been attacked for strictly guarding the EU’s external border, an attitude for which “it should rather have deserved recognition”.

Orbán said that Brussels’ plan on the protection of external borders relies on the good intent of member states but “misses the target” as it focusses on reforming the refugee system. He said that the reform should rather concentrate on protecting the external borders, otherwise “we will be unable to resolve the migration issue.”

“If external border protection does not function, Schengen will be dead,” he said.

Outlining his recently announced Schengen 2.0 action plan, Orbán said that member states that are unable to protect the EU’s external borders and reject the assistance offered by other members should be excluded from the zone.

He added that decisions on the status of refugees should be made in camps located outside the EU but maintained by the union.

Orbán said that accepting refugees should remain the competence of national parliaments. Hungary wants to solve its demographic and labour market problems with “a future-oriented family policy” rather than immigration, he said.

Orbán called Europe a “construction in permanent motion. It is like a shark: if it stops, it dies.” It is “absurd” that it seems to be merely composed of EU institutions which the member states should follow, he said.

The prime minister said he had disputes with Brussels, not Berlin, and with the EU officials, not Angela Merkel.

Orbán said that Hungary, just like himself, is part of Europe. This is why it makes proposals for improving the EU’s situation rather than quit the union, he said. The prime minister ruled out that Hungary would follow the “British road”.

Asked about his concept of “illiberal state”, Orbán said that the “systems competing with Europe are no doubt successful but Europe fails to admit this as it would hurt its self-esteem.”

It would be unwise to close one’s eyes to reality but “I do not think that a Russian of Chinese regime could be built in Germany. Nor is it possible in Hungary,” he said.

Orbán said that Europe had developed a system in which all democrats should be liberals. Formerly there were Christian democrats and “even social democrats” but now “everyone should define themselves as liberal”. An absurd situation has emerged in which “if you are not a liberal, you are not a democrat either.” For this reason, some issues cannot be discussed and some opinions cannot be expressed. “Liberalism has now become an enemy of free debate and those who do not remain in the mainstream discourse are excluded from the circle of democrats,” Orbán said.

Photo: MTI

Orbán: ‘Brussels, Hungarian left-wing alliance must be stopped’ – UPDATE

Budapest, April 22 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday that the alliance of Brussels and the Hungarian left wing, whose intention is to “import many millions to Europe”, must be stopped.

He said the Schengen 2.0 action plan must be promulgated because Brussels had put forward an impossible proposal according to which Europe’s demographic and economic problems must be solved by allowing in more and more migrants.

Orbán added that all this tied in with a document published by former Socialist governments on migration policy, he said.

“This figured in the programme of previous Socialist governments: a tenth of the country would consist of foreigners within the foreseeable future,” he said, adding that this would be a “nightmare”.

He said the EU’s youth unemployment problems should be addressed by giving jobs European workers instead of bringing in “people from other cultures” who would raise social tensions and “increase the threat of terrorism”. But this issue cannot be discussed openly in western Europe where people “live in a bubble” and under “intellectual oppression”, he said.

Orbán said that while originally Germany and Hungary had taken two entirely different approaches to handling the migrant crisis, Germany, too, has started focusing on protecting the EU’s external borders.

Although they will never admit it, EU leaders are now prioritising border protection, just as Hungary did from the start, he said. The dispute within the bloc now centers on what to do with the people who have already been taken in or are currently entering the EU on their own, mainly through Italy, he said.

If a member state, at national level, decides to admit migrants without controls, the consequences of that decision would spread beyond its borders and this cannot be borne internationally, he added.

Orbán said that if his government’s referendum on refugee quotas failed to stop Brussels, Hungary could be put in a position where the EU would be the one to decide whom Hungarians have to live with.

Speaking about the Schengen area, the prime minister said member states must fulfill their Schengen responsibilities. If a member state is located on the area’s periphery, that state must ensure the protection of the external border. Member states that fail to comply with the Schengen rules should relinquish their border protection rights to the EU, and if they don’t, their Schengen membership should be suspended or they should be expelled from the bloc, Orbán said.

Orbán urged the EU to make a deal with the Libyan government as soon as possible on setting up a refugee camp on the country’s coast from where refugees can come to Europe in a controlled manner, provided that there is an EU country ready to take them in. The camp and the procedure as a whole should be financed completely by the EU, he said.

Update

Orbán: Hungary experiencing economic boom

Budapest, April 22 (MTI) – Hungary is experiencing a time of economic prosperity and will take another step forward in 2017, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Speaking about next year’s budget, the prime minister said wages are continuously growing while unemployment is decreasing, something that Hungary “achieved without loans”. Furthermore, Hungary has managed to fully pay back the IMF-EU loan it took up in 2008 when the financial crisis hit, he noted.

Orbán also noted that the government is cutting taxes and raising the value of pensions.

Citing EU statistical data, he said the number of Hungarians living in poverty declined by 600,000 in 2013-2014.

He said next year’s budget will be characterised by tax cuts and helping people get a home. “There is also room for making progress in health care and education,” he added.

Wages for doctors and nurses must be increased as part of a comprehensive package “as part of decisions over 3-4 years to close the wage gap”, he said. The difference between doctors’ wages in the West and in Hungary should be reduced, but western wages cannot be introduced within a year or two, he said, adding that a chance for an agreement in ongoing talks between representatives of the government and health-care workers was on the cards.

He also said that during a visit in Germany earlier this week he met heads of Mercedes and Deutsche Telekom. Hungary signed an agreement with Telekom on ensuring broadband internet access for all corporations and households by 2018. In this respect, “we want to be the first in Europe, beating even Germany”, he added. Hungary’s government wants to continue reducing the internet VAT rate, he said. “We’ve started reducing the internet VAT rate and we want to continue this in the coming years, too,” Orbán added.

The government recently announced plans to reduce the VAT rate on internet service from 27 percent to 18 percent from next year. Subscribers are expected to save 13 billion-15 billion forints.

Photo: MTI

EU institutions’ approach to migration disappointing, says foreign minister in Luxembourg

Luxembourg, April 18 (MTI) – The attitude European Union institutions have had towards the migrant crisis has been disappointing, as even despite the obvious consequences of illegal migration, they keep trying to find ways to bring even more people to Europe, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Monday.

Péter Szijjártó told MTI on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg that it was time for the EU to do away with its current migration policy and stop “sending invitations to migrants”, who risk their lives setting off on a journey to Europe.

The consequences of the so-called “pull factors” of migration are clear, Szijjártó said, citing a fresh report from the BBC which said hundreds of migrants were feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross from Egypt to Italy.

He said the EU’s primary concern should be finding a way to reduce the migration pressure on the bloc’s external borders and determining the measures national governments and the EU as a whole need to carry out to achieve this. Before amending the Dublin rules, the EU should strengthen the Schengen regulations and their enforcement.

Szijjártó said this was the aim of the ten-point action plan the Hungarian government put forward on Friday.

Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s plan dubbed “Schengen 2.0”, if a Schengen Area member state is incapable of keeping to the Schengen rules, the EU border protection agency must intervene and take over that country’s border protection duties under an agreement. If, however, the sides fail to reach an agreement on the matter, the country’s Schengen membership could be suspended, said Szijjártó.

He reiterated that Hungary rejects any refugee quota-based proposals to resolve the crisis as well as the mentality that migration could be used to solve Europe’s demography and labour market issues.

On the subject of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, which is also on the meeting’s agenda, Szijjártó said Hungary will propose that the European Commission put together a plan to provide aid to the country’s Kurdish region in the north that is home to more than 2 million internal refugees.

Responding to recent comments by UN High Commissioner For Refugees Filippo Grandi in which he said that Europe cannot respond to the refugee crisis by building border fences, Szijjártó said he disagreed with Grandi’s position. The migration wave can only be stopped by protecting borders, which has to be the first step, Szijjártó said.

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Orbán proposes package to protect EU borders

Lisbon, April 15 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has presented a ten-point proposal to protect the external borders of the European Union while maintaining free movement within the community on Friday.

The prime minister put forward his proposals at a conference of the Christian Democratic International in Lisbon.

The package, dubbed Schengen 2.0, was compiled in the wake of an “ill-considered” European Commission proposal to manage the migration crisis, Orbán told the Hungarian public media.

The prime minister insisted that the European proposal was aimed at changing the refugee system whereas, he said, it is Europe’s borders that should be protected.

Orbán suggested that while European decision makers aim to impose immigrants on members as a way to resolve demographic or economic problems, Hungary and “some other countries” have different ways to manage those issues, such as means of family or economic policies.

“The EU cannot strip members of the right to decide how they want to solve those problems… it must not create a system of allowing migrants to enter and then make it mandatory for each member to accommodate them,” he said.

Concerning his government’s plans to hold a referendum on migrant quotas, Orbán said that “we are under tremendous pressure… unless we stop Brussels by way of a referendum, they will indeed force upon us large numbers of people we do not want to live together with”.

On the subject of the recent Panama Papers scandal, Orban pressed for full transparency and called on countries “with low tax rates” to provide information once the authorities of another country enquire about investments by its citizens.

During his visit to Lisbon, Orbán had talks with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as well as Pedro Passos Coelho, head of the PSD party.

Photo: MTI