“The EU has assured Greece of its full solidarity with relation to the fact that it must face major migration pressure because of the large number of migrants arriving from the direction of Turkey”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Friday in Zagreb following an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The Minister highlighted that he remembers when five years ago in 2015 there was a debate on the migration pressure appearing along the EU’s external borders. “Five of the current 27 foreign ministers were present at that debate, and when we spoke about the fact that the borders must be protected, and that Hungary is constructing a fence and sending police officers and military personnel to the border in the interests of protecting the country, Budapest was slammed with the nastiest possible adjectives”, he underlined. “Hungary was at the centre of the most ruthless international political attacks, and was compared to the darkest dictatorships in 20th century history”, he added.

“By today, however, that Hungarian standpoint has become the general European standpoint in view of the fact that today the EU spoke about the protection of Europe’s eternal borders, resisting migration pressure, and action to combat the illegal crossing of borders”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

He said that in his opinion, after five years the EU has finally been successfully made to understand that Europe, the European people and European security must be protected. “It must be made clear that we will not tolerate any kind of illegal entry”, he stated.

According to the Minister, there was an attempt at some trickery with relation to the adopted decision, because they tried to include provisions concerning the management of migration in the chapter on cooperation with the Western Balkans. “But Hungary announced its intent to submit a veto in view of the fact that migration must be stopped, not managed, and we must cooperate with the Western Balkans with relation to stopping migration, not managing it”, he emphasised.

“For five years, the EU made the mistake of wanting to manage migration instead of stopping it. During the course of the debate we succeeded in assuring that the disputed text was removed from the decision”, he added.

In closing, Mr. Szijjártó said he had made it clear to his EU counterparts that Hungary will protect its borders and its own security under all circumstances, regardless of the level of pressure. He also assured his Greek colleague that he can count on Hungary’s solidarity when Greece is protecting its own border against illegal immigrants.

On 28 February, Ankara announced that the Turkish authorities will no longer be stopping migrants who want to go to the European Union from the territory of Turkey, despite the fact that the Turkish leadership undertook to do so in the agreement it concluded with brussels in 2016. In response to the move, Greece has reinforced the protection of its eastern borders, as a result of which over ten thousand migrants have already accumulated along the common land border of the two countries. Greek border guards are deploying tear gas, amongst other measures, in an attempt to prevent the migrants from getting through. Athens is also expecting support from the EU to resolve the situation.

(MTI)