Border protection is a competence preserved for member states and the Commission will give no financial support for the construction of the border fence, Christian Wigand said, repeating a position already voiced several times by the European Commission and EU commissioner for migration Dimitris Avramopoulos.

The situation in Calais greatly differs from Hungary, the spokesman said referring to the French seaport which is a hub of traffic bound for the United Kingdom. The Calais situation centres upon enabling the safe operation of the port and migrants’ protection to prevent them from a fatal electric shock when preventing to illegally board vehicles on their way to the United Kingdom, Mr. Wigand argued.

The Commission’s opinion, effectively giving a green light to the border fence, comes as a politician for Germany’s co-ruling CSU party and leader of the centre-right European People’s Party’s (EPP) group in the European Parliament, has called for all countries shortlisted for EU membership to be declared safe to contain the tide of immigration.

Those arriving from countries declared safe would have no chance of their asylum applications being approved, Manfred Weber said. Official candidates for EU membership now include Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo also striving to achieve the legal status.

Source: hungarytoday.hu

Republished with permission

MTI photo: Ujvári Sándor