Orbán: EU at Turkey’s mercy

Berlin (MTI) – The European Union is at the mercy of Turkey, a situation that is “never good” as the EU’s security should not be put in the hands of a non-EU power, Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, said in an interview in German weekly Wirtschaftswoche on Friday.

The prime minister said that he had accepted the EU’s Turkey strategy on condition that a border protection system would be put in place.

“A continent should be able to defend itself,” he said.

Orbán noted that the EU members would soon pay Turkey 3 billion euros and then another 3 billion euros and no one can see when this will end. In June, Europe will face another challenge as Turkey will insist on a no-visa regime and will let refugees go to Europe if it does not get the waiver, he said, insisting that Europe should protect itself from that wave of refugees.

The prime minister called it unfair that Hungary had been attacked for strictly guarding the EU’s external border, an attitude for which “it should rather have deserved recognition”.

Orbán said that Brussels’ plan on the protection of external borders relies on the good intent of member states but “misses the target” as it focusses on reforming the refugee system. He said that the reform should rather concentrate on protecting the external borders, otherwise “we will be unable to resolve the migration issue.”

“If external border protection does not function, Schengen will be dead,” he said.

Outlining his recently announced Schengen 2.0 action plan, Orbán said that member states that are unable to protect the EU’s external borders and reject the assistance offered by other members should be excluded from the zone.

He added that decisions on the status of refugees should be made in camps located outside the EU but maintained by the union.