Hungary rejects the insults made by the President of the European Parliament (EP), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI on Wednesday.
The Foreign Minister was speaking in reaction to the fact that on Wednesday morning in reply to a question on German ARD public television concerning why Europe has still not been successful in protecting its external borders, EP President Martin Schulz replied: “because self-interested European governments are placing their strange, partly very nationalist interests before European Community solutions. Governments like the one in Budapest who say this is a German problem that has nothing to do with us are very representative. There are 20 member states who say Europe is only their concern if they receive money”.
With regard to the statement, Mr. Szijjártó said “It has become clear yet again that Martin Schultz has a totally unjustified and unfounded sense of superiority with regard to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We could call this simply: arrogance”.
Hungary has opened its markets and has performed its undertakings, and so it has a right to cohesion funding, he pointed out, adding that this is not a handout; “’this is money that is due to us”.
It is precisely the “insulted V4 countries” who are searching for solutions to illegal immigration in view of the fact that they have invited Bulgaria and Macedonia to attend a summit meeting on 15 February, because it is obvious that these two country could play a key role in protecting Europe from illegal immigration, he declared.
“Martin Shultz is still travelling ever further towards a dead end, while the countries of the Visegrád Group and their partners are doing everything possible to stem the flow of illegal immigration that represents the greatest crisis in the history of the European Union”, Mr. Szijjártó said.