“Europe is currently characterised by hypocrisy: when a country totally ignores the common Schengen Regulations and Europe’s security and allows thousands of migrants to enter the continent every day or transports them on to other countries, Europe calls it solidarity”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in Budapest at a business conference.

The Minister said it was absurd that while during the course of an airport security check one even has to put ones toothpaste into a see-through plastic bag, thousands of people are being allowed through Europe’s external borders on a daily basis, without anyone knowing “who they are, with what purpose they are entering Europe and what they are bringing with them”.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, solidarity means, among others, conforming to common regulations and seeking to reduce the continuously increasing burdens on neighbouring allies, and in this respect Hungary is one of the countries that is showing the most solidarity in view of the fact that no illegal immigrants are reaching Austria or Germany via Hungary.

Speaking at an automotive industry conference organised by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), the Foreign Minister drew attention to the fact that if Europe fails to return to upholding the Schengen Regulations in the near future, it will be “practically beheading its own economy”.

The existence of the Schengen Area is currently the foremost guarantor of the competitiveness of the European economy, but several member states have been disregarding the regulations in spectacular fashion for months now, and especially Greece, which is transporting immigrants to the continent by the thousands. What is at least as big a problem, however, is that certain European institutions and politicians are praising this clear infringement of regulations, the Minister stressed, adding that the automotive industry would be one of the worst affected if the Schengen Area were to collapse.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)