The Hungarian Government’s criticism related to the migration crisis is not levelled at Germany, but „at Europe’s inaction”, Szabolcs Takács, State Secretary for EU affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office pointed out in Berlin at the meeting of the working group concerned with Hungary of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
The State Secretary stressed: Hungary will always be a strong ally of Germany, „agrees with it on 19 issues out of 20”, and with the protection of the external border of the EU, contributes to minimising the number of „illegal immigrants” arriving in its territory.
Ágoston Sámuel Mráz, head of the Nézőpont Research Institute added: Hungary „cannot afford the luxury of confronting Germany”, there is merely an „intensively mediatised conflict” between the two countries, and it is a misunderstanding that the disputes in recent periods would amount to „anti-German sentiments”.
At the discussion entitled How to go on in the EU after the Brexit referendum – positions and recommendations from Hungary, where among others researchers, diplomats and journalists listened to the two Hungarian guests, Mr Takács highlighted that while the EU is a „success story”, by 2008 the world economic crisis had reached a more intensive phase, and a great many things have changed since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon which reformed relations within the EU in 2009: a number of countries fail to observe the Maastricht rules relating to their budgets and sovereign debts, the European Commission (EC) has removed itself from under the control of the Council which serves as a forum for the Governments of the Member States and the European Parliament (EP), and applies double standards, the EU’s institutions have distanced themselves from the people, and as a result, the entire political elite has found itself in a state of crisis which is also indicated by the increasing popularity of extreme forces.
At the same time, the migration crisis has cast a light on the EU’s inaction, and after the Maastricht regulations, the Schengen and Dublin regulations, too, are in jeopardy: the provisions regulating the functioning of the EU area without border controls and the EU asylum system.
Mr Takács stressed: the EU has not found itself in its current, critical state because of Brexit, the termination of Britain’s EU membership, but on the contrary: the British people decided to leave because of the state the EU is in.
With the exit of Britain, „common sense, discipline and the observance of rules in economic policy” will disappear, he added.
As he said, the EU must return to its roots, to law and order, and fiscal discipline, and EU institutions must stop applying double standards: they must realise that the Member States are not there to serve them, but they are there to serve the Member States.
He underlined that Hungary is following the rules even amidst the migration crisis, and in his view, it is necessary to clarify the term of solidarity. Each member should only be expected to make a contribution that is in proportion to its capacity.
In response to the idea raised by members of his audience to the effect that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán proposed in an interview published on Thursday on the news portal origo.hu – in the context of the relocation of illegal border-crossers to outside the EU – the setting up of an enormous prison „Guantanamo XXL” style, the State Secretary stressed: it is fairer towards economic migrants if their cases are decided before they enter the territory of the EU, and therefore we need hotspots (asylum-seeker registration stations) outside the territory of the EU and an independent EU defence capacity.
He highlighted that similar immigration systems are operated in the world’s other two migration targets, in the United States and Australia as well.
Ágoston Mráz pointed out, among others, that in the post-Brexit EU setup, it will be necessary to review the roles and powers of the EC and the EP, and it may well be that by using the support that will be manifested in the millions of votes in the referendum of 2 October as expected, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will „launch into an exercise for the enforcement of European interests” and will make proposals.
Szabolcs Takács and Ágoston Sámuel Mráz equally highlighted that the economically dynamically developing and politically stable region of the Visegrád countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia – V4) will increasingly gain in significance in the EU.
Proof of this is that German Chancellor Angela Merkel conducted a separate consultation with the leaders of the V4 group before the Bratislava summit regarding the future of the EU, Mr Mráz said, stressing that the Visegrád cooperation is not aimed against anyone. Its principal objective is to ensure that „Central-Europe, too, should be able to sit by the table where decisions are made” in the post-Brexit EU.