Justice Minister Judit Varga gave the German liberal weekly Die Zeit an interview entitled “We want to stop migration” which was released in the weekly’s Thursday edition.
The Minister pointed out that the Hungarian government’s position has been known for some time now, and its essence lies in that we must concentrate on the “external dimensions” of migration policy and must above all terminate the causes of migration. She said “we must take help where there are problems, instead of bringing problems to Europe”.
She highlighted that the government does not want “Europe to become an immigrant continent,” and rather than managing migration, it wants to stop it. It respects other countries’ different views on this matter, and expects others to respect ours. “This is where the essence of the conflict lies: every country must decide in a sovereign manner,” Ms. Varga stated.
Regarding the European Commission’s asylum and migration proposals, she said “the Brussels tone has changed,” issues that were earlier treated as “taboos” came to the fore, including the return of rejected asylum-seekers and cooperation with the so-called countries of origin, the countries of asylum-seekers.
She underlined that an asylum-seeker should only be granted protection if his or her application for asylum is well-founded and is coming from a non-safe third country. She said “the principle is important: refugees must seek asylum in the first safe country on their journey”.
Therefore, all applications “should be assessed in transit zones or at hot spots outside the EU”. If that were the case, no one would embark on perilous journeys aboard hazardous boats and risk their lives. This would be a genuine breakthrough. However, as long as we keep arguing over quotas, we should not be surprised that many continue to try to come to Europe illegally,” the Justice Minister explained.
She added that it would be early to say whether the Commission’s proposal that Member States refusing to take refugees in should take part in organising the return of rejected asylum-seekers is acceptable. “The devil is in the detail, and we are only at the very beginning of a series of very difficult negotiations. Hungary rejects all forms of mandatory quotas, whatever they call them,” Ms. Varga said.
In connection with the debates about the rule of law, she stressed that in different countries the rule of law manifests itself in different forms, and it has no generally accepted, clear definition as, for instance, most countries, but not all have constitutional courts.
It is possible to conduct debates about rule of law standards, even in the EU, but this is the duty of the Member States, not the Commission, Ms. Varga said, stressing that the right to have the last, decisive say must be reserved for the Member States.
The treaties on the functioning of the EU do not allow the European Commission to analyse the state of the rule of law in the Member States; yet, defying Hungary and Poland’s resistance, the Brussels body did just that, the Minister underlined.
Regarding the statement made by Vice President of the European Commission Vera Jourová the other day, she confirmed the government’s demand that the EU Commissioner must resign. “With her statement, Ms. Jourová violates the EU’s values, and as commissioner also her duty to engage in a dialogue. It is completely unacceptable for her to make political statements and to insult my country. We expect the Vice President to resign,” Ms. Varga said.
The Minister also confirmed that the government does not support the new compromise proposal presented by the German government currently holding the presidency of the Council of the EU – the institution comprising the governments of the Member States – which ties EU financial grants to respect for the principles of the rule of law. She said the treaties providing for the functioning of the EU “clearly define the existing rule of law mechanisms” and “creating new mechanisms would implicitly amount to an amendment of the treaties” which would violate the fundamental principle that the treaties must be observed.
“We cannot defend the rule of law by violating the basic principle of the rule of law,” Ms. Varga said, adding that “those who insist on the rule of law condition are jeopardising the entire agreement on the budget and the coming into being of an historic aid package”.