“The European Union misunderstands the situation and there are ongoing fruitless debates on immigration within the European Union concerning the solution to the migration crisis”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed on the final day of the informal meeting of EU Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers in Amsterdam in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.
“We accept that principles are important and that it is also important to protect principles, but the situation is extremely serious and we should finally begin focusing on protecting people”, the Minister said.
Since the situation in Syria is not improving, increasing numbers of people are arriving at the Turkish-Syrian border, which indicates that we can expect a further increase in immigration pressure on Europe, Mr. Szijjártó added.
The European Union is taking a huge risk by continuing the totally unproductive theoretical debate that has been going on for months now, and which has led to uncontrolled mass migration. This increases the risk of terrorism, could cause the collapse of the Schengen Area and is also destabilising the Western Balkan region, the Minister declared.
Mr. Szijjártó said he thought Visegrád Group cooperation could provide a solution. If a Macedonian-Bulgarian line of defence is successfully established at the V4 summit on 15 February, which the Prime Ministers of Macedonia and Bulgaria will also be attending, it will be capable of putting an end to the currently unprotected state of the European Union’s southern borders, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade highlighted.