EU Asks Turkey to Protect EU Borders Due to Bloc’s Inability – Hungarian PM

According to the Hungarian prime minister, the EU is asking the Turkish president to help protect the Union's borders "in exchange for money and promices."

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Union is asking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help protect its borders, as the bloc cannot do it on its own, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

"We humbly ask President Erdogan — in exchange for money and promises — to protect our borders, because we cannot protect them on our own. It is a bad policy, because it makes the future and security of Europe dependent on the goodwill of Turkey," Orban told the German Bild newspaper in an interview.

The Hungarian prime minister added that Brussels' promise to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees currently in Turkey and distribute them across Europe was an illusion.

Europe is currently struggling with a massive refugee influx, as hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants flee conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The majority of them use Turkey as a transit point to enter EU member states.

On November 29, Brussels and Ankara approved a joint plan to counter the influx of migrants into the bloc, under which EU member states will give 3 billion euros (around $3.3 billion) to Ankara in 2016-2017 and fast track talks for its accession to the bloc.

The next EU-Turkey summit on efforts to combat the migrant crisis will be held on March 7.