Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said the decision on the mandatory resettlement quota was “unimplementable” at his press conference in Brussels on Thursday, in response to the fact that the infringement proceedings launched against Hungary for rejecting the refugee quotas are moving forward into their court stage.
According to the Minister, the exclusive reason for the LIBE hearing and the preparation of the report against Hungary is the significant difference with relation to the parties’ assessment of illegal immigration. Because while the LIBE Committee and the majority of MEP’s regard illegal immigration as a positive development with regard to Europe, the Hungarian Government regards it as dangerous and regards the decision on mandatory resettlement quotas as a bad and damaging decision. Hungary will fight till the last breath to ensure that decisions that go against the security and will of the Hungarian people do not come into force, he added.
“It should be the absolute duty of European institutions to introduce measures to restore European security instead of picking on certain member states”, he declared.
Mr. Szijjártó also said he had no doubt that the report on Hungary “had already been written”, that the political motivation behind “the political witch-hunt against Hungary” would be clearly visible from the report, and that the report would “not be independent” of George Soros’s standpoint.
According to the Minister, based on Thursday morning’s hearing, the previous statements by Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács relating to a political witch-hunt against Hungary have been confirmed. They are using double standards against Hungary, the country has been “targeted”, he said.
With reaction to EU monies that are due to Hungary, the Minister pointed out that a major part of the EU funding that arrives in Hungary, some three quarters of it, is utilised by large Western European corporations.
In reply to a question on the fact that the infringement proceedings against Hungary are moving into the court stage, Mr. Szijjártó said Hungary would be putting forward its arguments before the European Court of Justice.
He called the decision on the mandatory resettlement quota “unimplementable”, because there exists no method of forcing people who are settled in a certain country within the Schengen Area to remain there.
In addition to the decision being impossible to implement, Mr. Szijjártó also explained that the mandatory resettlement quota is totally contrary to common sense, as well as contravening European law and European treaties, because the issue of immigration falls under a national sphere of competence. For this reason, the Government regards the fact that the European institutions want to take away the right of certain member states to decide for themselves who they want to allow into their territory and who they do not want to allow entry to, as a violation of Hungary’s sovereignty.
In reply to a question, the Minister noted that the countries that are criticising Hungary so forcefully and who are “loudly praising” the mandatory resettlement quota have “performed so wonderfully with relation to the quota” that the average rate of implementation had almost reached 25 percent.
With reaction to a proposal concerning the possible suspension of Hungary’s right to vote in the European Council, Mr. Szijjártó said he would not like to enter the “realms of science fiction”, because we cannot yet know how the European Commission will decide.
In reply to a question on the possible weakening of the unity of the Visegrád Group (V4), the Minister said the V4 is the strongest and most effective alliance in the EU today, and there is no question that this is something that not everybody is happy about. There have always been and will always be attempts to weaken the V4; “we always have a good laugh about these amongst ourselves”, he said.
Also in reply to a question, Mr. Szijjártó said the approach according to which there is no democracy in Hungary was unacceptable. “We have nothing to be ashamed about with relation to democracy and the rule of law”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister declared.
(MTI)
