In Pécs on Thursday, György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, attended an international scientific conference entitled “From border police to police sciences”, at which he said in his presentation that national solutions have been realised along the Balkan migration route in coordination with Austria. Referring to the most recent report by the EU border agency Frontex, he said that thanks to these national solutions “the decline in the volume of migration had already occurred before the EU-Turkey deal entered into force”.
The EU must be able to protect its own borders, Mr. Bakondi said; referring to Turkey, he added that the EU should not rely on the help and goodwill of only one non-EU country of 80 million people. He called migration the type of law enforcement and defence challenge which has not been witnessed since the end of the Cold War, and pointed out that it is not known exactly how many of the people who have arrived in Europe might be a threat to the public and national security of the Member States.
He further added that a threat from this perspective may be posed by those who have taken part in military training and fighting, as well as those “former Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian secret service officers” who are able to carry out “tasks related to organisation, network maintenance and leadership” and have joined the Islamic State. Mr. Bakondi also added the followers of the extreme Wahhabite branch of Sunni Islam to this list.
Speaking about the political effects of migration, Mr. Bakondi said that “in a number of countries” new parties never seen before have emerged on the political scene. “Since in Europe there is democracy, in the long term governance is not possible if the people do not agree with it: neither in Brussels nor in Germany”, Mr. Bakondi pointed out.
Speaking about the referendum on migrant resettlement quotas, he said that the referendum can prevent Brussels’ idea for mandatory resettlement from being implemented. In relation to the Schengen 2.0 action plan, he expressed the hope that a shift will occur which will put the safety of European and Hungarian people first.
Eleven presentations are being given during the Thursday meeting on current challenges facing the police, which has been organised by the Pécs-based groups of the Hungarian Association of Police Science and the Hungarian Association of Military Science.