European Union ministers responsible for general EU affairs met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss migration and the next EU budget. Hungary was represented by Minister of State for EU Affairs Szabolcs Takács from the Prime Minister’s Office, who stressed that Hungary will accept no compromise with relation to mandatory quotas.
In a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI, Mr. Takács stressed that with relation to migration “we will not accept any kind of compromise that includes the mandatory distribution of immigrants and asylum-seekers in any form”. “Hungary has no legal or political obligation to become a country of immigrants”, he said.
The Minister of State added that the goal of the Hungarian Government is for member states to recognise, during the upcoming Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which it will assume from 1 July this year, that instead of an approach based on distribution, the protection of the EU’s external borders must be placed at the centre of focus. “Convincing them is not easy, and we have seen that in some countries the issue of secondary migration has led to internal political disturbances. We aren’t counting on reaching a compromise at this week’s EU summit either. An agreement requires all member states to accept as fact that distribution does not work and the EU should be practicing an immigration policy based on border protection”, he detailed.
“There are still a lot of open issues relating to the budget”, he said, adding that the parties have no idea when a compromise can be successfully reached. “The draft put forward by the European Commission is a fundamentally pro-immigration budget”, he stressed.
“Hungary goal is for EU funding for the protection of the European Union’s external borders to be included in the budget, meaning it can also be financed using EU resources, not just from the national budget. There is no sign of this so far in the drafts that have been put forward to date, no consensus has been arrived at concerning this issue”, he pointed out. “Some member states do not want to contribute more funds to the budget following Brexit, so the size of the budget itself is also uncertain”, Mr. Takács added.
The meeting was, however, successful with relation to EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. Following a long and large-scale debate, it was agreed that accession negotiations with Macedonia can begin in June 2019, and six months later also with Albania.