EU funds shouldn’t be used to promote immigration

A press release by Tamás Deutsch

Last Wednesday, the European Parliament’s plenary session adopted its position on the 2019 EU budget. The MEPs have raised next year’s payments by 600 million euros to EUR 149,3 billion. Fidesz MEPs have opposed the increase of migration funds.

In the European Council, EU heads of state and government have previously put a cap on funds related to managing migration (EUR 460 million in liabilities and 94.5 million in payments), Fidesz member of the EP’s Committee on Budgets Tamás Deutsch said. This also reflects the Hungarian interest, he added, and this is why we didn’t support the change in the EP position. “They shouldn’t be allowed to spend EU funds on ways to promote migration,” stressed MEP Deutsch.

According to Deutsch the realization of regional development programs has accelerated, and Hungary is now submitting even more invoices to Brussels. Following recent trends, in 2019 Hungary is expected to receive record-breaking cohesion fund payments.

It’s a major success that an initiative from Lívia Járóka, Fidesz MEP and European Parliament Vice-President, aimed at social inclusion of the Roma is also included in the 2019 budget. According to the adopted amendment, beginning in 2019, funds shall be dedicated to the development of digital skills of the Roma by the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD). The amendment calls attention to the fact that Roma people in Europe are particularly vulnerable and their economic inclusion is not feasible without fundamental digital skills, therefore targeted measures should be adopted to develop such skills.

The EP plenary supported the initiative of MEPs Tamás Deutsch, Csaba Sógor and Norbert Erdős to allocate 50 million euros in 2019 to address the damages of the African swine fever pandemic. “Thanks to strict preventive policies in Hungary, we have managed to protect domestic swine from getting infected with the epidemic. Thus, it is our fundamental interest to make sure that national and EU funds for prevention remain available,” said Norbert Erdős, member of the EP’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.