PM Orban: There is a solution to migration, but Brussels does not want to implement it

There is a solution to migration, but the European Union does not want to implement it, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban told a joint press briefing in Bratislava on Monday, following a meeting of the prime ministers of the Visegrad Group countries (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland).

Pozsony, 2023. június 26. A Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda által közreadott képen Orbán Viktor magyar, Petr Fiala cseh kormányfõ, Ódor Lajos, a szlovák kormány magyar nemzetiségû miniszterelnöke és Mateusz Morawiecki lengyel miniszterelnök (b-j) sajtótájékoztatót tart a visegrádi országok (V4) kormányfõinek csúcstalálkozóján Pozsonyban 2023. június 26-án. MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher Fotó: Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher

We share a common position

The Hungarian prime minister underlined that that Hungary's position on illegal migration remains unchanged. A potential solution - which is also laid down in Hungarian laws - would be that if someone submits an application for entry to the EU's territory, he or she must be physically outside of European borders until their application has been assessed. 

If we could establish that only those could enter the territory of the EU who have undergone this procedure and whose entry has been authorized by a member state, we could put this misery behind us in short order,

– Mr Orban stressed. He added that the EU was not willing to take this decisive step, and unfortunately the European Commission's (EC) new migration proposal has not achieved this goal, either. This is why we must continue fighting in this matter, he stressed.

With regard to the budget amendment proposal - which also deals with migration - outlined by the European Commission, PM Orban said the funds earmarked by the EC for the fight against migration are simply frivolous.

I must say that the whole proposal, as it stands, is frivolous on the part of the European Commission and in this form - in Hungary's view - it is unfit for negotiation,

– Mr Orban said, adding that the EC need to submit a proposal that can be taken seriously. 

We discussed in depth the topic of migration at today’s V4 summit with @MorawieckiM , @LudoOdorPM and @P_Fiala . The 🇭🇺 position is clear: the latest budget amendment proposal of the @EuropeanCommiss is frivolous. We are asking for a new proposal from the EU Commission that can… pic.twitter.com/SyvLPAHWhV

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) June 26, 2023

At the prime ministerial summit of the Visegrad Four countries in Bratislava, the participants also discussed options for dealing with illegal immigration, as well as the situation in Ukraine and its consequences, the question of the Western Balkans and the EU Green Deal. Regarding the Western Balkans, PM Orban underlined that he had visited several countries in the region over the past one week and was pleased to learn that there was a common view that the Balkan countries' accession process to the EU should be accelerated. 

He said: "We are at a time when much of the attention is focused on Ukraine, but there are other problems, and attention must also be paid to the Balkans, where the escalating tensions require a sophisticated, complex solution, the handling of which by the EU has been fraught with miscalculations and failures. Mr Orban stressed the need for a Balkans policy that gives clear membership perspective to the peoples living there.

He said it was unacceptable to create such a sentiment that Ukraine could join the EU ahead of other countries that have been holding candidate status for years now.

Mr Orban also responded to developments that Serbian authorities may soon release the three Kosovo police officers who had been arrested earlier, in line with his request made last week. "I am pleased that Serbian authorities and the court have decided to release the three Kosovo police officers, and that this has helped to ease the rapidly escalating tensions," he said. Concerning the EU's Green Deal and its impact on competitiveness, he described the green transition as important, stressing however, that it must be implemented in a way so as not to undermine the competitiveness of Hungary and Central Europe.

PM Orban said the participants have also reviewed the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war, but, as he said, the aim is not to make this issue the focus of their joint cooperation. He said Hungary shared the concerns about grain arriving from Ukraine.

We are in favor of grain from Ukraine reaching its destinations outside Europe, but we are not in favor of this grain staying here, for instance in Hungary, thereby destroying Hungary's entire grain market,

– Mr Orban said. The meeting of the V4 prime ministers in Bratislava was one of the final events of Slovakia's V4 presidency, which will terminate at the end of June. The Czech Republic will take over the Visegrad Group's Presidency from Slovakia in July.

They reject Brussels' migration plans 

– The V4 countries are also rising to the challenge of hosting war refugees, a topic that forms a very strong common bond between us today, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said.

We firmly stand by our view that the European Union's external borders must be protected and that we cannot support people smuggling organizations or people traffickers, because this is totally immoral, and we cannot support terrorist organizations, either, at the same time. We do not agree with any migrant quotas and we will make it very clear that Europe must have mechanisms to protect itself from external migration,

Mr Morawiecki said. He also touched on the migration pact recently adopted by the EU's interior ministers, which he said leaves member states with two realistic options: they will either take in a certain number of migrants, or they will have to pay tens of thousands of euros per migrant into the EU coffers.

Cover photo: the image released by the Prime Minister's Press Office shows Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Czech PM Petr Fiala, Slovakia's PM of Hungarian descent Lajos Odor and Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki (from R to L) holding a press conference at the prime ministerial summit of the Visegrad countries in Bratislava, on 26 June, 2023 (Photo: MTI / Prime Minister's Press Office / Vivien Cher Benko)