V4: “It is crucial to create a European-level migration and refugee system”

The defence and law enforcement committees of the parliaments of the Visegrád Group have expressed support for an undivided NATO and European Union, Lajos Kósa, the head of the Hungarian committee, said after a meeting of his V4 counterparts in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, on Friday.

The closed-door meeting, also attended by Slovenia, as an observer, focused on strategic and long-term cooperation issues as well as topical subjects such as the situation in Ukraine, Kósa told a press conference.

The participants issued a joint statement concerning the draft migration and refugee pact of the EU, as well as on defence cooperation between the Visegrád countries.

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Photo: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt

In their statements, the committee heads warned that a further increase in tension around Ukraine could trigger a wave of mass migration and create a situation similar to the Belarusian migration crisis and called for a complex approach.

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It is crucial to create a European-level migration and refugee system that could “cope with the challenges, the migration pressure on the external borders of the EU, as well as with the hybrid attacks that use migration as a tool”, the statement said.

In their statement, the signatories also called on the EU to “avoid any measures triggering migration”. Participants in the meeting also expressed support for the Hungarian V4 presidency’s efforts to further cooperation “in a V4+” format in view of shared security threats and challenges, Kósa said.

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Source: MTI