“UN and EU officials are trying to put us to sleep, but migration pressure has not been reduced, and on the contrary, it has increased in the recent period, and accordingly extremely firm action continues to be required in the interests of keeping the Western Balkan migration route closed”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Sophia.

“UN and EU officials from Brussels and New York want to put us to sleep, and want to create the image that the migration crisis is already over”, Mr. Szijjártó said. However, the Minister highlighted that 50 percent more illegal immigrants were apprehended in Turkey than in 2017; the number of people apprehended increased from 175 thousand to 165 thousand. In addition, 57 thousand illegal border crossing attempts were registered in Spain, which is double the 2017 figure, and a similar increase occurred in Cyprus. Furthermore, the number of people arriving via the Greek-Turkish border is also continuously increasing.

“Accordingly, migration pressure has increased further in the recent period, in contrast wo what they are attempting to portray in a deceitful manner”, the Minister underlined.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion the adoption of the UN Global Compact for Migration and the fact that Brussels is considering proposals relating to more distribution mechanisms have provided further encouragement for migration processes, and for this reason the danger of migration pressure is still present, and is in fact getting increasingly serious.

Hungary is maintaining its presence and continuous assistance for the countries of the Western Balkans, and in addition to Serbia and Macedonia, Hungarian police officers have also arrived and will continue to arrive in Bulgaria this year to help with border protection. The Minister highlighted the fact that Bulgaria is approaching the issue similarly to Hungary, and has also erected a fence along its border to stop illegal immigration processes and protect the security of the country and its citizens.

“Today, border protection is equivalent to the security of the country and its citizens”, the Minister emphasised.

In Sofia, Mr. Szijjártó met with Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva. The Minister pointed out that Bulgaria had not voted in favour of the Un Global Compact for migration, but had abstained during the vote.

“Hungary does not want to be a transit, target or source country for migration, and for this reason we rejected the Global Compact for Migration. We continue to regard border protection as our primary and most important task, and similarly to Bulgaria we will continue to protect the external borders of our country and the European Union”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed.

The Minister also said that he and his Bulgarian colleagues had agreed that double standards continue to be present within the European Union, for instance concerning relations with Russia and within the field of energy policy. They also agreed that that Russian gas arriving in Turkey must also reach Central Europe, and Bulgaria will be realising the infrastructure projects necessary to achieve this. The parties also agreed that it is the opinion of both countries that Austria’s new regulations on family benefits, according to which Austrian citizens and citizens from other EU member states will be receiving differing levels of benefits, goes against EU regulations.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, the Bulgarian ministers welcomed the fact that economic cooperation between the two countries is developing well. Trade flow between the two countries exceeded 1.2 billion euros during the first three quarters of last year, and it was announced on Wednesday that Hungarian bank OTP’s Bulgarian subsidiary will be purchasing another bank in the country, making it one of the two largest financial institutions in Bulgaria.

In reply to a question from MTI, Mr. Szijjártó said that Brexit was also discussed at the talks, and there was agreement on the fact that it is unfortunate that the United Kingdom is exiting the EU, because both Budapest and Sofia would have been happier if the UK were to remain a member of the EU. They also agreed, however, that the remaining 27 EU member states must maintain unity on the ussie, and both parties expressed their hope that thy way in which Brexit is achieved will cause the least possible damage and risk.

(MTI)