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The European Movement International strongly condemns the plans of the Hungarian government to build a wall at the Hungarian-Serbian border, which would mark a further step backwards in Hungary’s increasingly xenophobic and isolationist stance and sends a worrying political message to its neighbours.

Bernd Hüttemann, Vice President, European Movement International, said:
“Building ‘fortress Europe’ via a 175km wall is directly contrary to the values of respect for human dignity, liberty and equality that define our European Union. This anti-migrant attitude should also ring alarm bells in a region that suffered from such divisions before the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.”

Frédéric Vallier, Vice President, European Movement International, added:
“The recently proposed European Agenda on Migration presents a comprehensive strategy to deal with migration at the European level, and Hungary, as one of the 28 Member States, should not put a spanner in the works through unilateral action. We should not forget that migration is not a threat, but a common challenge which also offers opportunities for Europe.”