Hungarian foreign minister: Migration no solution to labour-market challenges

Budapest, October 21 (MTI) – Hungary’s standpoint is that migration is not a good solution to Europe’s labour-market problems or its demographic challenges, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told public television on Friday.

At the start of the week in Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers debated the EU’s global strategy, and it appears that it has not been possible to change minds at EU institutions on the focus of immigration policy, he said. The issues of distribution and broadening channels of migration are still on the table, serving as inspiration to migrants preparing to travel to Europe, he added.

Hungary’s standpoint is the opposite, the minister said. It believes that the pressure of migration must be eliminated, since migration is not a good salve for the continent’s problems, he added.

Szijjártó said this is why a unilateral declaration was appended to the EU strategy, making it clear that “no strategy accepted by any EU body can override” the sphere of authority of member states when it comes to immigration regulations, “and no one can force upon us an immigration policy that the Hungarian people reject.”

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Speaking on the topic of Britain’s exit from the EU, Szijjártó said that Hungary is insistent that economic, trade and investment ties between the EU and Britain should remain as flexible as possible and the over three million EU citizens working in Britain should have their rights protected. He added that he had talked to British government ministers about the Hungarian community in the UK, and everyone he spoke to said it was without question that Hungarians contributed towards the country’s development.