“Hungary expects solidarity from Europe”, the Government Spokesperson told Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday, referring to the fact that Hungary would like the EU to pay its share of the costs of Hungarian border protection.
“Hungary is not just protecting its own borders, but also those of Europe”, Zoltán Kovács added.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has written an official letter to President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, asking the politician to ensure that the EU pays Hungary half of the costs of Hungary’s border protection efforts, which equates to 883 million euros.
The Government Spokesperson stressed that one of the most important conditions for the so often mentioned European solidarity is the upholding of regulations, in this case the protection of Europe’s external borders.
“In his letter, the Hungarian Prime Minister is stressing one of the most important fundamental principles: solidarity. All the more because in contrast to Hungary, many in the EU are not upholding the Schengen regulations”, Mr. Kovács said.
“In contrast, Hungary has instated on upholding the existing regulations since the very beginning of the migration crisis. This is the fundamental unit of mutual solidarity”, he added.
As an example, he mentioned the fact that the EU has awarded Bulgaria 160 million euros and Greece 1 billion euros to compensate their expenses relating to border protection, and Italy has also received hundreds of millions of euros.
”In the spirit of fairness and solidarity, the European Union should also pay its share of the costs of Hungarian border protection”, Mr. Kovács said.