“In view of the fact that the coronavirus epidemic that is affecting the whole world is posing new challenges for everyone, the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) wish to tighten their cooperation even further with relation to protecting against the virus”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Monday in Prague following his talks with Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček.

“We are in agreement with relation to the fact that we will be establishing a coordination mechanism in which we will be able to agree our measures and exchange our experiences”, Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI. “Cooperation between the countries of the Visegrád Group within this field, which was already close during the first wave of the epidemic, will be tightened even further during this autumn’s second wave”, he underlined.

Mr. Szijjártó informed his Czech counterpart that Hungary will continue to enforce its September decision, according to which Czech citizens who have previously paid for a holiday in Hungary are allowed to enter the country, in October. He added that this decision is also valid with respect to the other two V4 countries, Poland and Slovakia.

During their meeting, the Czech and Hungarian foreign ministers afforded particular attention to the topic of illegal migration. “The European Commission’s Pact for Migration is absolutely unacceptable to Hungary, and the Czech head of government has also voiced strong criticism with respect to it”, Mr. Szijjártó said. “The Pact’s major mistake is that it wants to manage illegal migration instead of stopping it”, he pointed out.  “We regard it as impossible, unimaginable and unacceptable for people smugglers to decide about who can live in Europe and who can come to Europe”, he declared.

“Only the countries of Europe can decide on this. We maintain out right to have neither the people smugglers, nor Brussels, nor anybody else decide in our place”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. He drew attention to the fact that in view of the coronavirus pandemic, “From now on, waves of migration not only bear with them a security and cultural threat, but also represent an extremely serious health risk for the countries of Europe. And the only way of avoiding these risks is that illegal migration must be stopped”.

Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that the Czech Republic remains a priority strategic partner of Hungary, “and not even the words of European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová are going to change this”. “In a recent interview, Jourová called Hungary a ‘sick democracy’. Declarations such as this permanently eliminate the politician that makes them from civilised European political circles”, he stated. “We continue to believe that the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency must resign”, Hungary’s chief diplomat said, repeating the position of the Hungarian government. “In view of the fact that Věra Jourová does not represent the Czech government, or even the Czech Republic, in her role as EC Vice President, her words have absolutely no affect on bilateral Hungarian-Czech relations”, he underlined.

The Minister also said that the foreign ministers of the four Visegrád Group countries will be taking joint action at the Globsec security policy forum in Bratislava on Thursday, following which according to plan they will be jointly meeting and holding talks with the French foreign minister.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)