Péter Szijjártó: EU should again assert its ability to protect its own borders

“The Hungarian government cooperates with everybody who seeks to stop illegal migration and prioritizes border protection,” said Péter Szijjártó, the minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary following a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi.

Minister Szijjártó added that Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini shared Hungary’s view that “border protection trumped all other issues in terms of managing the migration crisis and that the EU should again assert its ability to protect its own borders,” citing Australia as an example of how maritime borders can be protected.

“We agreed that the root causes [of migration] must be addressed,” he said, “and entering Europe must be done according to European rules.”

The Italian and Hungarian governments’ policies on migration are identical on a number of points, according to Hungary’s foreign minister. Hungary maintains its standpoint that migrants should not be distributed among EU countries but should be prevented from coming to Europe, according to the Hungarian news service MTI.