Zoltán Kovács said the news coming out of the summit indicated that EU member states were “gradually realising” that “there is indeed a need for the measures Hungary has been proposing for over a year.”

This is also demonstrated by the declaration released by the member states acknowledging that the EU not only needs to protect its external borders but also stop migration outside its frontiers, Kovács said, hailing the declaration as a “turning point”.

In order to achieve this, the EU needs to reach agreements with countries in North Africa and the Middle East, he insisted. Kovács welcomed the change in Italy’s migration policy as a step in the right direction, pointing out however that it did not mean that the real solution to or the means to manage the migrant crisis had been found.

Hungary has long been saying that these measures should be implemented and it is “in all our interests that they are,” he said.

One of the key tasks laid out in the declaration adopted at the Malta summit on Friday is the stabilisation of Libya so that authorities in that country can regain control over the land and sea borders to combat human smuggling activities.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán