Brussels, October 15 (MTI) – Hungary stands ready to seal the Hungary-Croatia border, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters ahead of a meeting of the European Council on Thursday.

Commenting on talks on the migrant crisis, Orban said Hungary was ready to seal the border “within an hour if necessary,” though the best solution would be to seal Greece’s border.

A final decision will be made by Friday morning, adding that the government will wait to see what happens at the European Council’s session and the meeting between V4 leaders.

The fence on the Croatian border is ready, he said, noting that Hungary has also established cooperation with its V4 partners.

The prime minister noted that at last month’s European Council meeting, he outlined six proposals on handling the migrant crisis, five of which, he said had been implemented, but the sixth one, suggesting that Europe should take over the protection of Greece’s borders, had not.

Orban voiced hope that the council would agree on sealing off Greece’s borders at its upcoming session. Hungary would be willing to participate in such a scheme, he said. Orban added, however, that the best solution would be for Greece to comply with the Schengen rules, which, he said, it has so far failed to do. If Greece is unable to protect its own borders, Europe should do so in its place, the prime minister insisted.

At last month’s meeting of the European Council, Orban also proposed separating refugees and economic migrants before they enter the Schengen area and for the EU to draw up a list of countries considered safe to live in. He also suggested that every member state should increase contribution to the EU by 1 percent and cut spending by 1 percent, resulting in 3 billion euros to be spent on refugees. Furthermore, the prime minister proposed developing a partnership with states whose involvement in handling the migrant crisis is unavoidable, such as Turkey and Italy. Orban said global quotas should be introduced and all countries in the world should be involved in managing the migrant crisis.

Orban arrived in Brussels to attend a summit meeting of EU heads of state and government and first attended a European People’s Party meeting and held talks separately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The summit is focusing how the EU member states can jointly manage the migrant crisis, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters