Whereas the commission insists financier George Soros has nothing to do with the EU’s migration policies, “the billionaire’s published statements coincide with plans being made in Brussels”, according to the Hungarian government’s response to the European Commission. The government said the scheme to relocate migrations based on compulsory quotas had not been withdrawn and the rights of EU member states to protect their borders would be overruled. The commission, it added, supported the introduction of a migrant visa while, “bafflingly’, denying such a plan. At the same time, no denial was given concerning money given to organisations that aid migration, it said. Already, “tens of thousands of migrants” receive topped-up bank cards, the government maintained. The commission has acknowledged funding the scheme for migrant bank cards, it said, adding that 64,000 people had received money through card.
In its rebuttal, the government also noted that the commission backed pilot projects that would legalise migration. Accordingly, EU member states would propose pilot schemes with African countries to “replace irregular migration flows with secure, orderly and well-managed legal migration opportunities”. “The European Commission therefore does not seek to stop migration but to legalise it,” the government document said. Brussels, it insisted, planned to reduce the EU funds of member states that take an anti-migration stance. The commission’s insistence that “there is no correlation between EU funding and support or rejection of migration” is untrue, the document adds. “We are committed Europeans and we won’t surrender,” the government said in the rebuttal. “We want a Europe that respects the rights of nation states, builds on its Christian values, protects its communities, and can maintain its long-term security. This is why we speak out whenever we see all this endangered,” it added.