If there is at all a compromise concerning the issue of illegal immigration that is acceptable for all parties concerned, it is not what is currently taking shape in Brussels, but a consensus must be reached nonetheless, Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said on the Friday morning programme of the public service television news channel M1.

Mr Kovács said with respect to the meeting of the European Council to be held next week and the terms of mandatory distribution and mandatory solidarity to emerge there: every European summit is a highly specific game in which everyone attempts to enforce their respective interests, and the meetings are mostly closed with a compromise.

As regards the issue of illegal immigration, „if there is a compromise at all, it is something completely different from that which is currently taking shape”. At the same time, a compromise of some kind will have to be reached as according to all expert projections, the problem of migration „will remain with us for many more long decades”, he stressed.

He said in continuation: accordingly, Hungary sent a document to the Slovak Presidency which gathered together the alternatives that may substitute for the quotas, based on which there are four basic principles to rely upon.

These four fundamental principles are the protection of the external borders, the maintenance of internal border controls on a temporary basis at most, the taking into consideration of the expenses incurred by the individual Member States in connection with border protection measures, and the treatment of immigration as a source of threat, the Government Spokesperson listed.

Mr Kovács remarked: the Government takes the view that the „unit of measurement” of solidarity is not the quota system, but active and successful cooperation between the Member States such as there is among the Visegrád Four.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)