“Holland also views the protection of the European Union’s external borders as an important task”, Minister of State for EU Affairs Szabolcs Takács said on Friday following a meeting with Director-General for European Cooperation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Robert de Groot in the Hague.
“Hungary and Holland clearly have different view on several things relating to the refugee crisis, but there are many elements of the issue on which the two countries agree”, the Hungarian Minister of State said. “Both parties agreed that although a suitable solution to handling the crisis was still a long way off, the tone of the EU summit held in Brussels two days ago was much more constructive than the developments of previous weeks”, he added.
“We also agreed that mutual finger-pointing lead to nowhere”, Mr. Takács said.
With reference to the fact that a conference on the special problem of the Balkan migrant route will be held in Luxembourg on 8 October with the participation of the Western Balkan countries, the Minister of State for EU Affairs pointed out that “spring EU documentation didn’t even mention the Western Balkan route, but time has shown that this region cannot be ignored”. “The conference on the Western Balkans was initiated by Hungary, and it is extremely important that the meeting should not just deal with treating the symptoms (of the problem)”, Mr. Takács emphasised.
He also mentioned the fact that the meeting of EU Ministers of Interior would also be held in Luxembourg on the same day and that he hoped the summit would result in an agreement not only on what states are considered safe third countries of origin, but also with regard to which states should be regarded as safe transit countries.
Also discussed at Friday’s meeting was the fact that Holland will be taking over the Presidency of the European Union from 1 January. The parties reviewed Dutch plans for its Presidency and The Hague’s expected presidential priorities in addition to the continuing obvious task of handling the migration crisis.
During his visit to The Hague, Mr. Takács was also acting in his role as Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which is chaired by Hungary this year. The Hungarian Embassy organised an event in The Hague together with Jewish organisations and the Dutch Government, at which a travelling exhibition on Central European synagogue architecture was opened, he told the press.
(MTI)
