Kovacs: Brussels must welcome migrants if it forces Hungary to let them in

For almost a decade, Hungary has protected the EU’s external border, spending more than 2 billion euros of its own money to meet its Schengen obligations, the state secretary said, citing a letter by Tamas Ivan Kovacs, Hungary’s ambassador to Belgium, to the Socialist mayor of Brussels, Phillippe Close.

“[I]t is Hungary, not Brussels, that has suffered from a lack of solidarity,” Kovacs said, adding that all it got in return for rigorously protecting the EU border was a fine of 200 million euros.

“Hungary will not compromise its national security or bear this burden alone, especially when Brussels seems to desire migrants only as long as they remain in other EU member states,” he said, adding that the call for solidarity was not just rhetorical, but “a demand for fair treatment and genuine support from the EU”.

In his letter to Close, Hungary’s ambassador asked the mayor for his solidarity and support in ensuring that the EU did not penalise countries that comply with the Schengen Agreement and protect their external borders.

Ambassador Kovacs’s letter came in response to a post on X by Close in which he said that Hungary, while enjoying the solidarity of the EU, was “abandoning the other member states in a scandalous way”. He said it was “irresponsible to gamble with the lives of people in need at the expense of the people of Brussels”, and called on Hungary to “act responsibly or give up its presidency of the Council of the EU”.