According to Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács, the migration proposal put forward by Austria, the current President of the Council of the European Union, is closer to reality, but is still too far away to “receive an acceptable contour”.

Speaking on Hungarian M1 television’s Thursday evening current affairs program, Mr. Kovács was asked about the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. “Effective border protection that can be organised exists not only on dry land, but also at sea”, the Government Spokesperson highlighted. “However, there also exists an aspiration, which is primarily receiving support from Brussels and Germany, that is aimed at legalising migration”, he added.

“No agreement was reached at the summit, and it will indeed not be possible to come to an agreement with the conditions that are currently on the table”, he said, citing joint border protection and the establishment of a refugee agency as clear sticking points. According to Mr. Kovács, these clearly violate the sovereignty of member states, in addition to which they do not even contribute effectively to border protection.

“For three years, the Hungarian Government has been saying that it is standing in solidarity with Europe in view of the fact that it is conforming to regulations, and protecting the EU’s border is our duty and is in the EU’s fundamental interests”, Mr. Kovács stressed, adding that so far the EU “hasn’t contributed a cent” towards the incurred costs; they may have decided on giving 30 million euros, but the money has not arrived.

He also spoke about the fact that Brussels plans to push the Dublin reform through the European Parliament with a simple majority vote, which contravenes the basic treaty, because border protection and migration fall within the scope of authority of member states, not the community.

According to insider sources, at the summit Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said: “The EU must apply the notion of ‘mandatory solidarity’; every member state should contribute to the handling of the migration situation, but not necessarily through the admittance of migrants, in view of the fact that there is no consensus on this”.

(MTI)