Steven N.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the Commission to reimburse Hungary for the costs of the country’s border protection measures, government press officer Bertalan Havasi told state news agency MTI.
These measures have recently become a model for several European countries, said Havasi, and moreover, a migration crisis more serious than that experienced in 2015 now threatens the continent.
“I am convinced that the only guarantee of the current fragile stability is that Hungary, together with other member states, successfully protects the external borders of the Union,” the prime minister wrote.
Hungary has spent more than 590 billion Ft. from its own budget on border protection, including the construction of the border fence, which it considers one of the most effective border protection tools, thus justifying Hungary’s long-standing position and funding needs, the prime minister said in his letter.
The Hungarian Prime Minister also stated in his letter that it was time for the Commission to do what it should have done years ago: acknowledge that the protection of external borders is an indisputable expression of European solidarity, and that the member states’ efforts in this regard deserve recognition and support.
[Telex]
