EU Must Respond to Migration Issue to Become Stronger - Hungarian PM

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the European Union must respond to the most important issues it is faced with, such as migration, in order to be stronger.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He also added that Hungary was looking forward to a referendum in his country scheduled for the fall on whether to accept the EU quotas on migrants.

"Europe can only be strong if it can respond to such important issues as migration in a way that does not weaken the community but strengthens it. The EU has failed to respond in such a way," Orban was quoted by the Daily News Hungary as saying.

"After all, this is one of the most important issues, if not the single most important issue, on the future of the nation… Hungary is a strong democracy, the people will decide what they want," he added.

Last year, European interior ministers adopted, at an extraordinary meeting, a mandatory quota scheme to relocate some 160,000 refugees located mostly in Italy and Greece throughout the bloc’s 28 members on an equitable basis.

Hungary is one of the four Visegrad Group (V4 group) states, along with Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which opposes the implementation of the mandatory EU quota scheme to relocate thousands of refugees throughout the bloc. In February, Orban decided to hold a referendum on the EU mandatory quotas, under which the country would be obliged to take in 2,300 refugees.