EU Commissioner to Finally Visit the Southern Hungarian Border Fence

By: hungarytoday.hu

May 27 2024
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EU Commissioner to Finally Vis

At the invitation of Mihály Varga, the EU Budget Commissioner will visit Hungary, the Finance Minister announced. Johannes Hahn will go ahead with his plan to see the southern border fence for himself. “The Commissioner’s visit in June is the first step towards Brussels taking a bigger share of our border protection costs,” said the minister.

“It is becoming embarrassing for Brussels that Hungary is using its own money to finance the protection of the common EU border,” the Minister told Index regarding Johannes Hahn’s future visit to Hungary’s southern border.

The story dates back to December 2023, when Mihály Varga wrote an official letter to EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn, saying that the protection of the European Union’s common borders is based on a consensus that goes back many decades. The original legislative idea was that Member States located at the external borders of the EU would provide for the protection of the borders through joint financing. The Minister underlined in his letter that the migration crisis has now created a situation where this intention is not fully met.

EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn. Photo: X/Johannes Hahn

Since 2015, Hungary has prevented one million illegal border crossings on the country’s southern Schengen border. Migration pressure is increasing, with Hungarian border guards taking action against 100,000 illegal migrants this year alone, the politician pointed out.

While Hungary spent more than EUR 1.6 billion on border protection between the outbreak of the migration crisis and the writing of the letter (roughly until December last year), the EU contribution to these costs is barely more than one percent.

Following this, the Finance Minister decided in December to write to the EU Budget Commissioner to ask for a greater EU contribution to Hungary’s border protection costs. Varga has now told Index that the EU Budget Commissioner has finally accepted his invitation and will visit Hungary. According to the Finance Minister,

the visit of the Budget Commissioner in June is the first step towards getting Brussels to take a bigger share of our border protection costs.”

“Hungary’s position is clear: it is absurd and nonsense that our country should be penalized by HUF 6 million [EUR 15,600] a day for protecting Europe and not accepting migrants. On the contrary: instead of a penalty, we expect a fair and proportionate contribution to the costs of border protection, and this is what I will be arguing for in the meeting,” the Minister explained.

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