“A major rift has developed in Europe between pro-immigration and anti-immigration counties”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Kossuth Radio’s “Sunday papers” program.
Reporting on the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, Mr. Szijjártó said that in Tallinn all attempts to disrupt the unity of the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) had been successfully countered, and accordingly the V4 continues to be the most united and efficient alliance within the European Union, and its members agree that illegal immigration is bad and dangerous, and that the mandatory resettlement quota is ill-fitted to handle the situation.
“The European Court of Justice issued an outrageous and irresponsible political decision in the quota case, which is at odds with the interests of every European nation”, he repeated.
“Politics has raped European law and European values”, he said, stressing that the EU is being extremely deceitful with regard to the quota in view of the fact that just three weeks before the end of the deadline, only 25 percent of quotas have been successfully realised, and given this, it is un-European to blame the failure of the quota system on the V4”, he added.
The Minister said he also believes there is a certain level of deceitfulness with regard to the quota system, because the EU clearly wants to build a permanent mechanism around the mandatory resettlement quota, according to which it would be able to automatically distribute all of the new immigrants who arrive in Europe each year. In his opinion this is indicated, amongst others, by the fact that instead of border protection the main topic of discussion in Brussels continues to be ways of bringing as many people as possible into Europe.
Mr. Szijjártó underlined the fact that in contrast the Hungarian Government regards its duty as being to guarantee the safety of the country’s citizens, and insists on being able to decide for itself who it will allow into the country, while regarding as definitive the stipulations of the Schengen Agreement.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade repeated the fact that he views the new Ukrainian Education Act, which also strips the local Hungarian community of their right to continue studying in their native language after fourth grade (age 10), as a stab in the back for Hungary. “Ukraine introduced the new legislation despite the fact that Hungary was the strongest supporter of visa free travel into the European Union for Ukrainian citizens, has afforded 2600 Ukrainian children free holidays in Hungary and has provided 600 million forints (EUR 2 million) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine”, Mr. Szijjártó explained, adding that Hungary will make use of every possible European and global forum to ensure that the new legislation does not come into force.
Mr. Szijjártó re-expressed his hope that the Romanian Government’s suggestions for a solution in the case of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Secondary School in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) will be successful, otherwise Hungary will be unable to support Romania’s bid for membership of the OECD.
With relating to the two cases, the Minister declared that Hungary is happy to support all of its neighbours, but the Government will not sit idly by while the rights of the Hungarian community are reduced further in exchange for all its help. “We won’t let them take us for fools!”, he said.
Mr. Szijjártó also indicated that the dispute between Hungary and Holland would be discussed by the two countries’ prime ministers at the EU summit in Tallinn at the end of September.