“Your interpretation of the principle of solidarity is not in accordance with European Union legislation, or with Hungarian historic traditions”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote, amongst others, in his letter of reply to President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, the text of which was provided to the kormany.hu website on Thursday afternoon by the Prime Minister’s Press Chief, Bertalan Havasi.

“First of all, I am pleased to note that you also recognise Hungary’s efforts in border protection. In the past two years Hungary has defended our common borders by mobilising budget resources, but building a protective fence, and by placing thousands lf border-hunters into active duty”, Mr. Orbán wrote, before reiterating the standpoint he put forward at the summit of European heads of state and government, according to which Hungary should always behave as a country where there are Schengen borders, but for geographic reasons, migrants can only enter the country if they have crossed the borders of the EU in other member states; mainly in Greece.

“For this reason, Hungary has not taken part and does not want to take part in projects that do not make this issue evident, Mr. Orbán underlined.

“On behalf of the Hungarian Government, I would like to make it clear that in or opinion your interpretation of the principle of solidarity is not in accordance with European Union legislation, and it is not in accordance with Hungarian historic traditions either, the Prime Minister continued, pointing out that in contrast to some of the major member states of the European Union, Hungary does not have a colonial past.

“These major member states have become immigrant countries due to the obligations stemming from their colonial legacy. Hungary on the other hand is not an immigrant country, does not want to be an immigrant country, and cannot accept being forced to change this. The interpretation of the principle of solidarity described in your letter is in essence the transformation of Hungary into an immigrant country, against the will of Hungarian citizens. In my view this is not solidarity, it is violence”, the letter states.

“We are confused by the part of your letter that creates a link between the question of immigration and cohesion funding. Such a relationship does not exist and is not permitted by the current EU acquis. According to the view of the Hungarian Government, a significant part of the resources provided by Cohesion Fund end up at eh companies of net contributor countries. The economics of major EU member states have thus greatly benefited from the use of cohesion funding, just as they have also benefitted from new member states opening their markets”, wrote the Prime Minister, who continued by saying that he was “stunned and puzzled to read that you and the European Commission are refusing to provide funding for the fence. I am convinced that those who do not support the fence cannot and do not want to protect the citizens of the European Union. It is impossible to defend ourselves against numerous illegal border crossing attempts without setting up physical obstacles. If instead of defending our borders, the European Commission is willing to finance solely measures and organisations that aim to facilitate the admission of migrants, then we will only give new incentives to hundreds of thousands of migrants who wish to move to Europe, instead of curbing migration”.

“I would therefore like to repeat the request of the Hungarian Government for the European Union to pay half of the expense of the Hungarian measure aimed at defending the common Schengen borders, including the cost of the construction of the fence. This sum – 270 billion forints – has been financed entirely by Hungarian taxpayers, but the fence and the Hungarian border-hunters are not only protecting Hungarians, but Austrian, German and other European Union citizens as well”, Prime Minister Orbán wrote in closing in his letter to Jean-Claude Juncker.

(Prime Minister’s Press Office)