Prague, Feb 15 (CTK) – The migrant crisis has no other but a joint European solution, the participants in a Prague summit of the Visegrad Four (V4) group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Macedonia and Bulgaria agreed on Monday.
The EU should more support Bulgaria and Macedonia in implementing their own border protection measures, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told a press conference after the summit.
Apart from the V4 prime ministers, the meeting was attended by Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
Sobotka said the six countries’ representatives also agreed on the need to implement the agreement between the EU and Turkey, and support Greece’s effort to fulfil the conditions of its Schengen membership.
Along with supporting the search for a solution together with Turkey and Greece, it is simultaneously necessary to prepare an alternative Plan B that would rest in building a reserve Schengen border south of Hungary, the participants agreed.
In the past, V4 officials spoke about reinforcing Bulgaria’s and Macedonia’s borders with Greece.
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said this plan is not aimed against any EU country.
Europe needs to regain control of the migrant streams, she said, adding that she expects effective measures to be adopted at the European Council meeting in March at the latest.
Europe is faced with serious challenges and problems, the solution of which must be based on common sense and a joint position, Szydlo said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that after the V4 members entered the EU in 2004, he considered the V4’s main goals achieved. In face of the current migrant crisis, however, the V4 is needed more now than ever before, Orban said.
He said Hungary fully supports Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen system, since Sofia has shown it is capable of protecting its border.
Orban also said he is for a reasonable discussion on Macedonia’s EU entry.
Macedonian President Ivanov said the burden Macedonia bears in the migrant crisis is heavier than that borne by many EU members.
He said Macedonia wants both economic and political guarantees from the EU, and a solution involving Greece, though it does not want to pass the burden of responsibility for the migrants on to it.
Slovak PM Robert Fico said the value of the Visegrad countries in the European debate on the tackling of the migration problems was that they had pointed to the security risks that other European politicians could not see several months ago.
“It seems to me that many European politicians in the migrant crisis lack the sense of reality,” Fico said.
This is why the V4 countries should play a significant role in the talks at the upcoming EU summit, he added.
Fico also rejected the criticisms of the Visegrad V4 countries for their too hard approach to refugees.
“Let me reject any accusations of the V4 countries of not showing solidarity, of not being European,” he stressed.
The V4 countries have actively offered financial and personnel aid to the countries that face problems with the migrant wave, he noted.
The Czech opposition right-wing Civic Democrat (ODS) chairman Petr Fiala commented on the results of the V4 summit on migration, calling them chaotic.
“Despite all rhetorics, the V4 talks have confirmed that we are witnessing the end of the Schengen Area in its current shape,” Fiala said, adding that the suspended Schengen membership of Greece and its subsequent exclusion has become a more and more realistic alternative.
Fiala at the same time appreciated that the V4 countries had initiated a more active cooperation with the southeastern Balkan countries in tackling the migrants’ flows.
