“Dublin is Dead, Schengen Lives”

Review the Treaty

At his joint press conference with the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski on Friday in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged a review of the Treaty of the European Union, emphasising that in its current form the treaty is an obstacle to protecting European borders, culture, economy and democracy. He remarked that the form of the treaty, which was originally designed to accommodate six countries using their own national currencies, “clearly makes our functioning more difficult”.

Prime Minister Orbán stressed that we must recognise that migrants are coming to Europe from territories where EU Member States are involved in armed conflicts, and therefore “we are seen as enemies in those countries, and they see the acts of terrorism perpetrated in our countries as war victories”. He said that it is an irresponsible policy for Europeans to bring into their own countries the people who may then commit acts of terrorism.

When asked whether, similar to the Dublin Regulation, the Schengen system should also be declared dead, the Prime Minister said that “Dublin is dead, Schengen lives”. The Dublin Regulation is being ignored by an increasing number of EU Member States, while everyone is trying to implement the Schengen Agreement; if that were to die, he said, “walls and fences would be erected, and border controls would be established between countries where they did not exist before”. He stressed that free travel between Schengen countries must be protected, and to this end it is necessary to protect Schengen’s external borders. “Either you are a member of the Schengen Agreement and you protect its external borders, or if you choose not to protect them, you should not be a member of the Schengen Area”, he said.

Orbán reassured his Macedonian counterpart that Hungary will provide every assistance with the protection of borders, whether technical or financial assistance, or personnel. The Prime Minister further confirmed that Hungary supports Macedonia’s admission to the European Union and NATO. With reference to the Greek-Macedonia name dispute, he said that this is also a European interest, despite the ongoing disputes which are delaying the process. Hungary is opposed to “such blocking attempts” being successful. Viktor Orbán expressed his appreciation to Nikola Gruevski for the “ongoing stabilisation” of Macedonia. The EU can look upon Macedonia as one of the Balkan region’s most stable countries, he highlighted. Orbán said that Hungary stands for a “single economic and security zone and currently there is a gap between Hungary and Greece.”

“At today's meeting I have highlighted our appreciation and gratitude for Hungary's support of Macedonia's accession to EU and NATO. Hungary is one of our staunchest supporters, which is being tangible at all significant events that mention Macedonia”, Prime Minister Gruevski said. “We agree that the trend of development of economic cooperation in recent years has been positive, promising, but that we still have lot of work, and there is still much room for intensifying economic cooperation, in terms of greater trade and in terms of more investment”, he added regarding Hungarian-Macedonian relations.