Recent comments by EU officials indicate that the protection and management of external borders may need to be reinforced.Continue reading
Hungary protects Europe, therefore the European Commission should contribute financially to border protection, MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said in the plenary debate on migration.
The European Council clearly recognized that migration is a European challenge that requires a European response, Mairead McGuiness, the EU Commissioner for financial services, financial stability, and Capital Markets Union told the European Parliament in plenary on Wednesday.
Speaking about the EU summit last week, she said that European leaders agreed that the EU should act on two strands: legislative and operational. “The new pact on migration and asylum will ensure the efficiency of the working process, and the Commission will make further proposals to strengthen the EU’s capacity to reinforce our external borders,” the Irish official said.
Mairead McGuinness speaking at the plenary debate (Photo: European Parliament)
Balázs Hidvéghi, MEP of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party, stressed that at the EU summit, member state leaders finally recognized the need for strong border protection.
When all this started in 2015, there was only one European leader who knew what the solution was. When everyone was talking about quotas and redistribution, he was calling for stronger borders and building a fence. This leader is called Viktor Orbán,”
he pointed out. According to Hidvéghi, time has proven Orbán right, while most people were either wrong or not brave enough to say what they really think.
“From this point of view, it is refreshing to see Manfred Weber and the EPP finally following the Hungarian prime minister’s path. You are eight years late, but better late than never,” he noted.
The politician argued that Hungary has been protecting the EU’s common external borders for eight years, spending 1.7 billion euros on this effort, but the European Commission has still not contributed to the cost of the border fence. “We are protecting the whole European Union, so we are demanding a substantial contribution from the European Commission. It is time to pay the bills,” Hidvéghi underscored.
Featured photo via Police.hu