Hungary has put forward the idea that the capital of Malta should not be the only venue for an international conference on migration this autumn to review the situation in the Mediterranean, but a summit should also be organised in Budapest at which issues related to the Western Balkan migration route would be discussed, Péter Szijjártó said in Luxembourg on Monday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade is attending the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, during which he told Hungarian journalists that during the discussion on migration he himself had drawn attention to the fact that Hungary was the EU Member State with the largest influx of refugees this year. He raised the issue that the EU has up to this point focussed solely on the mass flow of refugees crossing the Mediterranean and has dedicated no attention at all to the Western Balkan route that seriously affects Hungary.
“A geographically differentiated approach is required”, he said. According to his data, more than 50,000 immigrants have arrived in Hungary this year so far, in contrast to 48,000 in Greece and 47,000 in Italy.
On the subject of the Western Balkan migration route, Péter Szijjártó stated that the route is now used primarily not by those arriving from the Western Balkan countries, but increasingly by migrants from the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. According to the Hungarian Minister, the EU has not taken the pressure from the West Balkan immigration route seriously and has not treated it according to its importance so far, and “this situation must be changed immediately”.
In September, the heads of the EU Member States and the leaders of countries affected in the neighbouring region will gather in La Valletta, Malta to attend a summit on the pressure caused by trans-Mediterranean migration. Mr. Szijjártó has now put forward the initiative of also holding a summit in Budapest this coming autumn, and not at the end of autumn, attended by leaders from the EU, the West Balkan, the Middle Eastern and the East Mediterranean regions to discuss the measures required for reducing the pressure.
According to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Prime Minister will raise the idea of including the initiative of holding this Budapest summit in the autumn among the conclusions of the EU summit to be held in Brussels this coming Thursday and Friday. At the meeting in Luxemburg on Monday, the foreign ministers voted in favour of beginning the first, reconnaissance stage of the military operation in the Mediterranean Sea aimed at curbing illegal migration.
The heads of EU Member States decided in April that the EU should also apply force when taking action against human traffickers, operating mostly in Libya. Having launched the maritime operation called EUNAVFOR Med, with its headquarters in Rome, on 18 May, EU foreign ministers have now decided to begin the first operational stage of the operation, which for the time being is limited to aerial and naval reconnaissance, collecting intelligence, mapping the routes most often used by human traffickers and, if necessary, rescuing people from boats in danger on the open sea.
The pre-emptive use of military force against traffickers near the coast of Libya, prior to the departure of refugee vessels if possible, requires the authorisation of the UN Security Council. However, according to the current stance, this would require a request for assistance from Libya. Making a statement for Hungarian journalists, Mr. Szijjártó expressed his disappointment that no UN authorisation had been received to date. The fact that the operation is currently limited to gathering intelligence and information is unsatisfactory, he said.
“We should be in a position to be able to destroy the assets, i.e. boats (...) of human traffickers as soon as possible”, he added. He promised his support for the approach advocating that the solution to the problems caused by immigration pressure must be searched for outside the territory of the EU.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
