Hungarian State Secretary: Brussels Makes Confession

  • 27 Feb 2019 1:32 PM
  • Hungary Matters
Hungarian State Secretary: Brussels Makes Confession
Brussels has in effect made a confession that its concepts of migration that the Hungarian government claims would increase migration to Europe do indeed exist, Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communications and relations, said.

“The government regards these as dangerous,” Kovács told a press conference, commenting on the European Commission’s critical response to the government’s campaign on migration.

A legal proposal on the compulsory distribution of migrants within the bloc does exist and the European Commission has also confirmed that it is still pushing for the settlement of migrants from outside the EU within this framework, he said.

The commission has admitted that migrants staying in Greece receive bank cards, so far costing 110 million euros, he said. It has also “confessed” to a desire to strengthen border guard units controlled from Brussels, Kovács added, noting a comment by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that this could only work at the expense of national sovereignty.

“Also confessed is the European Parliament’s adoption of a proposal on migrant visas, the so-called humanitarian visas, and this essentially paves the way for the commission to stand by it,” he said.

Meanwhile, whereas the commission has not been mentioned in the EC resolution, the EP is intent on increasing funding for NGOs by 570 billion in the next financial cycle, Kovács said.

He said the Hungarian government was determined to inform the public about Brussels’ plans, and this is why Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is sending a letter to all voters.

The government “won’t be dissuaded from communicating plans that it disagrees with,” he said.

“We don’t want Hungary to be a country of immigrants while the Brussels bureaucracy is intent on Europe becoming a continent of immigrants.”

Kovács argued that the commission’s job should be to enforce what the European Council decides rather than implementing migration plans in its preparatory work without a consensus.

MTI Photo

  • How does this content make you feel?

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Matters

Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about what’s going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.