EU Commissioner’s Visit to the Border Fence Proved Too Good to Be True

Hungary Today 2024.05.29.

Johannes Hahn is likely to visit Hungary in the second half of June, but contrary to Mihály Varga’s claim, he has no intention of visiting border regions, the European Commission has corrected the Finance Minister.

The Hungarian Finance Minister’s claim that the EU Budget Commissioner will visit Hungary’s southern border in the second half of June, accepting an earlier invitation, is not true, reports Szabad Európa. Mihály Varga told Index last week that he hoped that the visit would help convince Johannes Hahn that the European Commission would contribute more to Hungary’s southern external border protection costs in the future.

EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Photo: X/Johannes Hahn

However, a day later, through a Commission spokesperson, Hahn denied that he intended to visit the southern border. He recalled that at the invitation of Finance Minister Mihály Varga, he was ready to travel to Budapest in the second half of June to discuss the EU’s next multi-annual framework budget in view of the upcoming Hungarian presidency of the EU Council. A proposal on this is expected to be presented by the newly established committee next June.

Apart from a possible visit to Budapest, Commissioner Hahn has no intention of traveling to a border region,”

the European Commission clarified on Monday.

Varga commented on the European Commission’s response in a Facebook post: “It did not last long… Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner, accepted my invitation, but he is only willing to come as far as Budapest, that is the subject of the debate. It is about the Schengen border, where thousands of Hungarian border guards and police officers work day and night to make sure that no one enters the territory of the European Union illegally.

I hope for further negotiations to see if it will be possible to make a personal presentation.”

Fact

The story dates back to December 2023, when Mihály Varga wrote an official letter to EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn, saying that the protection of the European Union’s common borders is based on a consensus that goes back many decades. The original legislative idea was that Member States located at the external borders of the EU would provide for the protection of the borders through joint financing. The Minister underlined in his letter that the migration crisis has now created a situation where this intention is not fully met.

While Hungary spent more than EUR 1.6 billion on border protection between the outbreak of the migration crisis and the writing of the letter (roughly until December last year), the EU contribution to these costs is barely more than one percent, Varga pointed out. He therefore asked the Commissioner for a greater EU contribution to Hungary’s border protection costs.

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Via Szabad Európa, Featured image: Facebook/Migrációkutató Intézet