According to the political scientist, this decision broadcasts the message of the alleged dialogue to the regimes of Russia and Belarus.
“At the same time, their officials, businessmen who earn here and circumvent sanctions, while looking for loopholes in the system, are told that it is possible to act and legalize through Budapest. It’s a very cynical signal,” he says.
“The message is broadcast to the other side that the EU can introduce any additional restrictions, but even if Hungary cannot veto one thing or another one hundred percent, it has its own instruments at the national level to deal with these issues,” adds the expert. According to him, this situation also indicates a certain struggle between Budapest and Brussels, thus sending another message in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Hungary is becoming a kind of Trojan horse for citizens of Russia and Belarus
ELTA reported earlier this month that in August, Hungary announced the fast-track issuance of visas to citizens of eight countries, including Russia and Belarus. After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow, Budapest included citizens of Russia and Belarus in the so-called National Card program, which is issued to people who want to work in Hungary.
National card holders can stay in the country for two years and then extend their stay for three years as many times as they want. Foreigners of any profession can work.
According to Hungary, many newcomers will build a nuclear power plant based on Russian technology.
V. Jurkonis notes that such a decision is not surprising, knowing how Budapest has been behaving recently. He also emphasizes that easing the visa regime for citizens of Russia and Belarus in the EU may pose challenges.
“If Hungary issues national visas, residence permits or other documents and these cannot be checked by individual Schengen countries, it greatly weakens our radar to see who is coming here and why. Hungary becomes a kind of Trojan horse for citizens of Russia or Belarus. After arriving in the Schengen zone, they can go wherever they want, especially if they do not use air travel, but go by land,” says the political scientist.
He also emphasizes that the extent of the danger of such a Budapest decision will depend on how it will be implemented.
“The question is, to what extent, for what number of people, for what people, on what basis those visas or residence permits will be issued, what kind of check, verification process will take place,” asks the interviewer of ELTA.
“It is also a fundamental question, what is our trust in Budapest. Will he not start issuing visas to all spies and employees of various structures caught in Austria, or will it simply not be the case that some of those people, when their visas or residence permits are revoked, will simply move to Budapest instead of leaving the territory of the EU,” he ponders. .
After the decision was made, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs asked Budapest to explain
Budapest’s decision also caused outrage in the European Union. The European Parliament’s largest group said after it was announced that the relaxed rules for citizens of Russia and Belarus could create serious loopholes for spying after the EU became a Russian target during the war in Ukraine.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson on August 1. sent a letter to the government of Budapest requesting by August 19 to answer questions about the reasons for the easing of entry conditions for citizens of Russia and Belarus.
“It is imperative that Russian citizens who may pose espionage or other threats to security be vetted at the highest level,” Y. Johansson wrote in a letter to Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér.
The commissioner added that the scheme could undermine Europe’s passport-free Schengen area.
“In the letter, I am asking the Hungarian government to explain. If their easy access scheme poses a risk, we will take action,” she said.
Hungarian Minister of the Interior: The national card is issued with due consideration of potential security risks
Journalist Boróka Paraszka Eltai of the Hungarian news portal “HGV” notes that the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not answer her questions regarding the relaxation of the visa regime for citizens of Russia and Belarus.
However, the journalist points out that EU Affairs Minister János Bóka posted on his Facebook account on August 21. shared by Interior Minister S. Pintério on August 16. in a written letter, which answers to August 1. Y. Johansson’s request for an explanation regarding the expansion of the circle of recipients of the national card to include citizens of Russia and Belarus.
“Hungary applies the same migration and security checks when assessing applications for a national card as it does for other residence permits. The national card is issued in compliance with the relevant EU regulations and due consideration of possible security risks. As a result of this issue, Hungarian rules and practices, which the Commission has not objected to so far, have not changed,” S. Pintéris writes in the letter.
“Hungary continues to attach great importance to ensuring its national security and the entire Schengen area,” he adds.
In turn, the spokesperson of the EC, Euractiv, confirmed that on August 19 Hungary’s answer to questions about why it simplified the procedure for entering the country for Russians and Belarusians has not yet been received.
V. Jurkonis: a unified biometric database is needed
In turn, political scientist V. Jurkonis also notes that in order to avoid the dangers of such and similar decisions, the EU needs to create a unified biometric database.
“In that case, if the national visa is issued by Hungary, Latvia, Austria, Sweden, and other countries would see it. I think that such decisions are long overdue in the EU. It was already acceptable after the Salisbury attack, after the spy story. Then this issue would not seem so disturbing,” he says.
“It’s no secret that the mother of Putin’s children, Alina Kabaeva, has a villa in France and lives in Switzerland. The question is whether Polish officials can see when and how she arrived on EU territory. And if they don’t see it, and as I understand it, they don’t see it, the question is, with which documents it goes. If a unified biometric database were to be created in the EU, it would be possible to see that such and such a person arrived in such and such a country, through such and such a border, not based on the available document, its distorted transliteration, but on the basis of fingerprints and biometric data. At the moment, that person is coming with a passport of another country, with a national visa issued by another country, and all other member countries do not know about it,” he adds.
According to the political scientist, if we are a unified economic space and a unified visa space, it is desirable that our inspection be based on the same standards.
“Even in the current conditions, if you are a citizen of Russia or Belarus and you still have a Hungarian visa, this in itself is a certain signal, a red flag that you need to pay a little more attention to this particular citizen, to take a closer look at who is coming to us here. “, says the expert.
ELTA prefers that the ministers responsible for foreign affairs and migration issues of the Nordic and Baltic countries on August 16. sent a joint letter to European Commission (EC) Commissioner for Internal Affairs Y. Johansson regarding Hungary’s decision to extend the application of the national card system to citizens of Russia and Belarus.
In a letter, the ministers supported Commissioner Johansson’s request to Hungarian Interior Minister S. Pintér to provide detailed answers by August 19, in order for the European Commission to assess whether the national card scheme for citizens of Russia and Belarus complies with EU law and whether this Hungarian decision does not endanger for the general operation of a space without interior walls.
2024-08-31 21:51:28