EU migration pact fails, PM's political director says

"The news from Lampedusa also proves that the EU migration pact, adopted despite Hungarian and Polish protests, has failed."

Lampedusa, 2023. szeptember 19. Az ország belsejébe szállításukra várakozó, illegális bevándorlók a dél-olaszországi Lampedusa szigetén lévõ befogadóközpontban 2023. szeptember 19-én. Az olasz kormány megszigorította az illegális bevándorlókra vonatkozó szabályokat, mert az elõzõ évhez képest megkétszerezõdött az idén mostanáig Olaszországba érkezett migránsok száma. MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ciro Fusco Fotó: Ciro Fusco

Hungary's position on migration is that illegal immigrants should not be admitted, that applications should be processed outside Europe, and that transit countries and countries of origin should be helped, Balazs Orban, the Hungarian prime minister's political director said in Rome at a two-day international conference on the future of Europe. 

Currently, Brussels is not part of the solution to the brutal migration pressure, but is partly the problem itself,

he added.

After next year's European Parliamentary (EP) elections, a new institutional leadership is needed, one that does not persecute conservative governments but cooperates with them and takes into account the geopolitical specificities of each member state.

At the moment, we see that the European Union is not helping member states to solve the problems that are of real interest and concern to the people of Europe, so we need to change this mindset first, and then we can start to see concrete action, he pointed out, expressing 

his hope that the EU will have such an institutional leadership by the second half of next year, at the beginning of the Hungarian EU presidency.

Everyone is dissatisfied with the current Brussels leadership. Their performance record over the past four and a half years has been unacceptable, the political director said, adding that this is particularly true regarding the management of the migration crisis, but also considering how completely the left-wing gender ideology has taken the European institutions hostage.

Balazs Orban finds it is unacceptable that double standards are applied to member states, while Europe is suffering from huge economic problems and competitiveness disadvantages due to the failed war sanctions policy.

It is symbolic, the political director says, that the meeting is being held in Rome because 

in Italy, to some extent, a coalition of center-right, conservative and pro-national identity voices has already been realized, which would be greatly needed in Brussels on a grander scale.

He also said that Hungary stands in full solidarity with the Meloni government, which has been abandoned by the EU in the latest wave of the migration crisis. In the absence of help, Italy has had to take the problem into its own hands, including by setting up closed camps like the Hungarian transit zones and an agreement with Tunisia to stop migrants from crossing the Mediterranean.

Cover photo: Illegal immigrants at a reception center on the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy waiting to be transported to the interior of the country. Photo taken September 19, 2023. The Italian government has tightened rules on illegal immigrants as the number of migrants arriving in Italy so far this year has doubled compared to last year (Photo: MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ciro Fusco)