V4 notched up big success at the EU summit, says Hungarian FM

Under the prime minister of Hungary’s leadership, the Visegrad Group has notched up a big success with the resolution adopted at the European Union summit which deals with the problems of migration in a meaningful framework, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

In the past three years, the debate on migration revolved in a “hypocritical and dogmatic” way around the question of which EU member states, and the extent to which, they should give up their own sovereignty, Szijjártó told public radio.

“The causes of migration have not disappeared at all,” he said, adding that more and more people are arriving in the Western Balkans with the help of NGOs in cooperation with smugglers. Around 30-35 million people in North Africa and the Middle East can decide at any time to make their way to Europe, he said.

Szijjártó said it was a testament to the success of V4 diplomacy that European views on how to handle migration had shifted towards the positions of central Europe.

He said international organisations with the backing of US billionaire George Soros would do everything in their power to put Europe into a post-Christian, post-nation period.

“The most important task is to protect Hungary, central Europe and, if possible, the whole of Europe,” the minister said.

Hungary, he added, is not an immigrant country. Europe should stick to its heritage and traditions that have made it the strongest of continents, Szijjártó said.

Meanwhile, he said Visegrad cooperation was becoming more stable, closer and stronger.

Szijjártó said that attacks by international forces had intensified after the European Council adopted a different position to that of “NGOs that want to replace the European population”. Hungary must cooperate effectively within the V4 and other countries with similar positions, he said.

He pointed out that the Austrian chancellor had been in Budapest the week before the EU summit.

Szijjártó said

an imminent meeting between Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be of “exceptional significance”.

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He noted that Germany is Hungary’s biggest economic partner. The performance of Hungary’s economy is fundamentally determined by its ties to Germany, he said, adding that the European political situation related to migration increased the significance of this kind of meeting, Szijjártó said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI