According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, Brussels favours immigration, and this is evident from the fact that the European Commission has just begun communicating about the positive effects of legal migration.

The Minister spoke to reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Visegrád Group (V4) and the Northern Baltic Eight in Palanga, Lithuania.

“The European Commission has put on the old record yet again, from which it can become clear to everyone that Brussels favours immigration, since the European Commission has just begun communicating about the positive effects of legal migration, which to all intents and purposes takes us back to last summer’s debates in New York on the UN Global Compact for Migration, which were about nothing other that legalizing illegal migration”, he stated.

He said that in his opinion the European Commission has “set its sights” on these efforts one again, and has launched another communications campaign in view of the approaching European Parliament (EP) elections.

Mr. Szijjártó said that there was agreement at the meeting with relation to the fact that migration has created perhaps the deepest dividing lines and differences of opinion in the history of the European Union to date, and the EP elections will provide an answer to the question of in what direction the EU will continue.

“The European Commission is continuing to attempt to deceive European governments and European public opinion into believing that the migration crisis doesn’t exist, and migration is a good thing, and by doing so they are in essence ignoring the events that have taken place in Europe during the past 4-5 years. We have seen the threat of terrorism increase to never-before-seen levels in Europe, and security challenges have increased more and more in recent years ”, he said.

In his speech at the forum, Mr. Szijjártó spoke about Hungary’s concerns with relation to migration.

“Hungary is primarily concerned about the fact that the infrastructure protecting Europe’s southern borders has not been developed at all since the quiet period that is the result of the treaty between the EU and Turkey”.

“While statements can be heard according to which it is impossible to protect the maritime border, Australia, which has a much longer maritime border, offered solutions to this problem and reduced the number of migrant vessels arriving to zero. “I think this must also be resolved, and can also be resolved, on the Mediterranean”, Mr. Szijjártó underlined.

“The European Commission has begun communicating about the fact that the migration crisis is at an end, while in fact the number of migrants arriving in Turkey increased by fifty percent last year to 265 thousand, with which the number of migrants and refugees on Turkey’s territory increased to four million”, he stated.

He also drew attention to the fact that 70 thousand migrants have been apprehended in the Western Balkan region, and an increase in attempts to illegally cross the border is also being experienced along Hungary’s southern border.

“A new wave of migration similar to the one four years ago must not be allowed to develop”, the politician said.

“Hungary is also concerned about the fact that the EU has a false approach to Africa. They are portraying the continent as a group of countries that definitely wants to send its citizens to Europe, but when we speak to our colleagues there, they tell us that they want to keep their people and are requesting assistance to enable them to do so, not so they can send them to Europe”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

The Minister said that in his opinion the continent must be given assistance towards its development to that it can retain those who would otherwise emigrate.

“The third thing that concerns Budapest is the document that the European Commission’s Legal Service has not yet made public, but with regard to which details have emerged. Their goal is for the Global Compact for Migration to be legally mandatory for every member state, including those that did not vote in favour of it”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.

“The responses provided in the name of the European Commission are not reassuring in this respect”, he stressed.

Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that work is already underway to find points of European law based on which this can be achieved, while the official dialogue during the course of the debate was that the Global Compact for Migration would in no way be mandatory.

In his speech at the forum in Palanga, Mr. Szijjártó spoke about how the election of President Donald Trump was received in the EU.

“His every move was received with hysteria and attacked in the media”, he said.

On the subject of cooperation with China, Mr. Szijjártó spoke about the fact that the European Union often applies a double standard, and that this is done using an extremely high level of hypocrisy: they warn against trade with China, while four large countries, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, realise almost half of all trade with China.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)