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Weekly government press briefing about Austrian chancellor’s visit, new migrant redistribution programme, Budapest metro upgrade
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Budapest, July 26 (MTI) – Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern will pay a visit to Budapest on July 26 upon invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the government office chief announced on Thursday. János Lázár called a new migrant redistribution programme proposed by EU commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos “especially dangerous” for Hungary, arguing that the scheme affects the country’s sovereignty and would encourage further migration into Europe. The government has launched a questionnaire on simplifying public administration services and reducing administrative fees, he said. The European Commission has recommended that Budapest should take out a loan to finance the upgrade of the city’s third metro line, saying this would be a profitable way to fund the project, Lázár said.
Austrian chancellor to visit Hungary on July 26
The aim of the visit is to begin “a new chapter” in Hungarian-Austrian relations, János Lázár told a regular weekly news conference.
Migration will be one of the topics covered at the meeting and the two countries will also use the visit to strengthen their economic ties, Lázár said.
He added that he would travel to Vienna on Monday to make official arrangements for the chancellor’s visit.
EC’s new migrant resettlement proposal ‘dangerous’
Under the programme put forward by Avramopoulos on Wednesday, Hungary would be obliged to integrate migrants that are resettled in the country to which the EU would contribute 10,000 euros for every migrant accepted, Lázár said at his regular weekly press conference.
Lázár called the proposal “outrageous” and said it was worse than the mandatory quota scheme. He said member states that refuse to participate in the scheme would likely face penalties.
The government office chief said the EC and the leftist groups of the European Parliament were “working together” on the migrant relocation scheme which he said made Hungary’s planned October 2 referendum on mandatory migrant quotas all the more important.
Responding to a question Lázár said it was “inconceivable” that the EC would ignore the result of Hungary’s referendum.
Regarding his personal opinion about the EU, he suggested that the powers of the European Council should be strengthened over those of the commission.
Since the supposed migrants said that they were beaten, why are they still clamoring to go into Hungary. Did anyone think that the beatings were self inflicted since there is no concrete proof, e.g. video. If people are fed up, they should try to get through Slovenia!! I am wondering if Serbia’s economy is so bad that their main income comes from people smuggling, otherwise they would protect their border.