Fico: EU Needs Protection of External Borders, Not Redistribution of Migrants

Komarno, October 22 (TASR-correspondent) - The EU doesn't need to redistribute migrants or impose mandatory quotas, but introduce measures in cooperation with countries that want to jointly protect the Union's external borders, said Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Komarno on Tuesday. "We were right when we said very clearly at the beginning of the big migration crisis that the basis for fighting irregular migration is protecting the EU's external borders. The Union does not need to redistribute migrants or impose mandatory quotas, but introduce measures in cooperation with countries that want to jointly protect their external borders," said Fico. The Slovak prime minister thanked Vucic for Serbian measures that have significantly helped Europe to tackle migration problems and expressed support for Serbia in its efforts to join the EU as soon as possible. "I cannot imagine that any country would join the EU before Serbia," he stated. Fico also praised Orban's proposal to continue the negotiations in this format further, noting that the developments in the war in Ukraine are also an important topic for all the participants in the Komarno meeting. zel/df