“The Government trusts that the referendum will provide it with a clear mandate on what standpoint it should represent with relation to the compulsory resettlement quotas. The Government does not wish to place pressure on Brussels, but will instead be presenting a clear political standpoint”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told reporters in Budapest.

Mr. Szijjártó said that it would seem that in other countries the political elite is claiming for itself the right to decide on the future of Europe.

The Foreign Minister said he thought the proposal by Brussels to impose fines on countries whose opinions differ from those of the Brussels institutions was unspeakable behaviour. “This kind of behaviour it totally un-European; we reject it and will do everything possible to ensure that similar political solutions do not form the backbone of decision-making in future”, he declared.

“As the only Member State of the Schengen Area to stop the flow of immigrants, Hungary has so far spent millions of euros, and has been alone in taking its Schengen responsibilities seriously and complying with common European regulations. Meanwhile nobody – apart from the other three Visegrád Group countries (Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic) – asked what they could do to show solidarity with Hungary”, he noted, adding that “on the subject of solidarity, the Brussels institutions are the last people who have the right to criticise us”.

According to the Foreign Minister, Hungary does not want to put pressure on Brussels. On the contrary, Brussels is putting pressure on Member States. “Hungary is a sovereign country and therefore we do not need to apply pressure; we must state our standpoint clearly to the European Commission, and we will indeed tell them resolutely and clearly – you can all count on that”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)