On Friday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian News Agency MTI that the EU should do everything in order to keep the Schengen area alive, yet instead certain countries would want to exclude Central Europeans from it.

The Minister stressed that the uncontrolled and massive influx of illegal migrants bears great security and economic risks. Hungary has been stressing this from the very beginning, and has in return received “intense criticism from the governments which now want to create a “mini-Schengen zone”.

He also emphasized that it is rather offensive that now it is exactly these countries “that wish to create an internal circle for themselves”. Whereas Hungary is the only country that respects Schengen regulations and ensures that that only people respecting common EU regulations can enter Hungary and thus the Schengen zone, he said.

According to the Minister, countries which are now thinking of creating this internal circle, have up until now been arguing for open borders and have been talking about the positive effects of this uncontrolled influx.

Mr. Szijjártó pointed out that if the Schengen zone were to be disintegrated, which if the current “hypocrite European immigration policy” stays intact might soon occur, that would lead to severe economic damages in Hungary and in Central Europe. He was of the opinion that in this case, the production schedule of local companies would immediately become unpredictable, production capacities would start degrading, which eventually would lead to massive job cuts and layoffs.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)