The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has opposition to the European asylum reform with Poland, justified the blocking of the discussions at the European summit in Brussels with a “fight for freedom”.
“We have already agreed several times that, since the issue of migration deeply divides us, we can only accept a regulation if we all agree, that is, if there is a unanimous decision,” he then explained in one Radio interview Long, fruitless discussions throughout the night, resumed on Friday morning.
Budapest and Warsaw firmly reject the system of compulsory solidarity between EU countries when looking after asylum seekers.
According to the agreement, member states would be obliged to take in a certain number of people arriving in an EU country under migratory pressure or, failing that, to make a financial contribution of 20,000 euros for each refugee who is not resettled .
This preliminary proposal was adopted in early June by a qualified majority (requiring approval from 15 countries out of 27, representing at least 65% of the total EU population), as required by the migration treaties.
It was “a fight for freedom, not a rebellion,” stressed Viktor Orban, describing “a scandalous process” as “unacceptable” under pressure from “immigration advocates.”
“They want to force us to build migrant ghettos with tens of thousands of apartments in Hungary,” the nationalist prime minister began after speaking of “migrant vans” in mid-June. “We have no intention of implementing these measures, I say that quite frankly.”
Poland, which is currently hosting more than a million Ukrainian refugees, has requested additional funding.
Mr Orban also criticized the European Commission’s presentation of a €50 billion aid package to help Ukraine until 2027 as part of an extension of the EU’s multiannual budget.
“Nobody came here to give EU bureaucrats more money,” he said. “It’s absurd (…), the proposal has no chance of being accepted,” he said.
The leader, who maintains contacts with Moscow, also said he had once again called for a ceasefire in a conflict that Kiev could not win.
“A year and a half has passed: there are no results, the results are even negative (…). “We must not pay money to continue the war,” stressed Viktor Orban.