Bence Rétvári, the parliamentary state secretary of the interior ministry, said on Thursday that “Brussels is punishing Hungary for policing its borders, while more and more EU states and Donald Trump are protecting their countries’ external borders.”
Rétvári spoke on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU interior and justice ministers in Warsaw, with issues around migration high on the agenda.
Concerning illegal migration, Rétvári said: “The EU has wasted ten years and is no closer to a solution, but the problem has grown even further.”
“It is unacceptable that while more and more member states are activating border controls against illegal migration, Hungary is obliged to pay one million euros in fines each day due to its border fence which protects the external borders,” he said.
Participants at the meeting concluded that currently less than 10 percent of migrants staying illegally could be expelled from the EU, Rétvári said, adding that “illegal migration will only increase further because … the chance that migrants can live in the EU illegally are nearly as high as if they do so legitimately.”
At the meeting, Rétvári said he “firmly demanded” that the EU provide a partial reimbursement to Hungary for its border protection expenses. “Preventing problems is less costly than financing the treatment from the common EU budget,” he said, adding that the “double standards” of the EU’s imposing “exorbitant, unfair fines” on Hungary rather than subsidizing the country was “unacceptable”.
Rétvári also encouraged other countries to join Hungary, Austria, Romania, and Bulgaria in their efforts to control the EU’s external borders, and he asked the EU to provide financing for common policing activities.
