The Hungarian interests are clear, and the legal situation is settled, he stressed. He added that there are Hungarian students and workers living in Britain, and their interests must be protected when the negotiations on British withdrawal begin. “I do not see any unclear issues regarding the British referendum. In my view all the questions have been answered, as the Treaty provides clear guidance for this eventuality”, he said. As long as after negotiations there is no amendment to the Treaty regarding withdrawal, the legal situation remains unchanged, the Prime Minister added.
Mr. Orbán told the press that British prime minister David Cameron will inform the summit of the fact of the referendum, but they will only receive official notification of its outcome after the decision of the British government. The Prime Minister stressed that the situation is serious, and there is no doubt that there is a crisis. At the same time, all the details of this crisis situation are taken care of from a legal point of view, Mr. Orbán added.
The Prime Minister said that “The truly important question is what conclusions we Europeans – those who are still in the European Union and intend to stay in it – choose to draw from what has happened”. He said that, as far as he is concerned, the clearest conclusion is that the topic that decided the referendum was the issue of migration. He said that “if the European Union is unable to resolve the migration situation, challenges of this nature – such as the one we have experienced with the United Kingdom – will multiply”.
He added that referenda are being proposed in more and more places because people see that the European Union is unable to manage the situation caused by migration. In Mr. Orbán’s view those countries using their own resources to take action are not being appreciated by the European Union, but are being criticised by it. That is a bad policy, the Prime Minister pointed out. We need a united migration policy which clearly defines its vision, he said.
The goal of Hungary is to stop migration, while others want to let in migrants and to distribute them later. “This is why we need to make sure that the Hungarian position is stated here in the strongest, most evident and most comprehensible possible terms. This is what the Hungarian referendum will be about”, the Prime Minister added.
