The European Union’s policy towards Africa and the Middle East must be radically changed, otherwise the Community will become completely irrelevant in these regions and further security risks will emerge, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels.
According to a statement by the ministry, Szijjártó called the measures taken in recent years in this area an absolute failure and stressed that the EU’s policy should serve a threefold objective: to allow Syrian and Libyan refugees to return home, to prevent further outflows, and to help the two countries avoid becoming migration transit states in the future.
According to Péter Szijjártó, this imposes three tasks on the community. Firstly, we need to help Turkey get as many Syrians home as possible, because if new waves of immigration hit the country, it will be difficult to maintain the agreement on the detention of migrants concluded in 2016.
In addition, Brussels should implement security, economic and health development programs in the Middle East and Africa instead of „inspiring migratory flows.” It should also support African countries in protecting their southern borders, he said.
„If the European Union cannot do this, if we continue with the Middle East and Africa policy of recent years, the EU will face further security risks,” Szijjártó said.
He added that, despite a number of contradictory communication panels, the European Commission continues to pursue a pro-migration policy.
