The European Commission's handling of the issue is only more surreal than the fact that the illegal migration crisis that has plagued Europe for the eighth year has not been resolved at the EU level, as well as the diametrically opposed and never-meeting positions of those on the right and left of the political horizon. The body led by Ursula von der Leyen does not consider the migration crisis so important that it sent its commissioner for agricultural affairs to the parliamentary debate on the assessment of asylum applications. website of Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojeciechowksi lists a lot of tasks, from rural development to agricultural development to the implementation of zero-emission goals, but not immigration policy.

Adjudication of asylum applications in external countries is not compatible with EU law and incompatible with the EU's international commitment

- said Janusz Wojeciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture of the European Commission, during the migration debate held in the European Parliament on Wednesday. In addition to the fact that he also spoke of "irregular migration" with the use of words taken from the left of the European Parliament, he claimed that the number of migrants arriving in the EU has decreased everywhere, with the exception of the migration routes in the Mediterranean. The Commissioner for Agriculture also presented the Commission's strategy, which spends half a billion euros to resettle 50,000 migrants by 2023-2025, and according to their vision

for example, it is necessary to ensure "the legal route for people going to the European Union through Nigeria and Rwanda."

However, the speech of Jean-Paul Garraud, the French representative of the right-wing Identity and Democracy (ID), showed a strong contrast to the position of the agricultural commissioner, who reminded that 950,000 asylum seekers arrived in Europe last year. The French politician also drew attention to the fact that according to all forecasts, this number will rise this year, and to reduce it, he came up with the proposal that asylum assessment offices should be set up outside the borders of the EU. Garraud cited the example of Denmark, whose social democratic leadership saw the unsustainability of illegal migration and already organized the asylum assessment process in Africa. According to the politician, the European left would blame all the world's pain on Europe, however

illegal migration can only be curbed if asylum applications are judged not in Europe, but outside its borders, and action is taken against human trafficking networks.

In a statement given to our newspaper, Jorge Buxadé Villalba, the Spanish representative of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), said that illegal migration also puts a heavy burden on his country. Although only ten percent of illegal migrants have been granted asylum, they are already within the borders of the EU. They can reach essentially any EU member state within twenty-four hours. That is why we need strong border protection, he pointed out. According to the Spanish politician

the European left, on the other hand, "are totally crazy, they want open borders."

But he also reminded that, based on the negotiations with the member states, he does not consider it realistic that the liberal idea will be realized.

The crisis caused by mass illegal migration, which has been unresolved for the eighth year at the EU level, is also telling in terms of the EU resources spent. While the institutions of the European Union on the basis of the 2023 budget 186.6 billion euros (68,874 billion forints, i.e. twice the Hungarian state budget for the same year), the Commission spends only 3 billion euros from the EU budget on border protection and migration. By way of comparison: the operation of the institutions of the European Union accounts for 11.3 billion euros from the budget.

Source: hirado.hu

Cover photo: MTI/EPA/Swen Pförtner