Csaba Sógor: The EU is in a foreign policy trap

2015-10-08

In an unprecedented way, the Council of the European Union is adopting decisions with a majority of the votes of Member States, without taking each other’s positions into account, which sends the message to the Eastern European states that their opinion does not matter – pointed out Csaba Sógor during the European Parliament’s plenary session, where the MEPs urged for a greater commitment from the EU regarding the promotion of security and stability in countries like Libya and  Syria, the largest sources of immigration at the moment.


The foreign policy issues were a priority on the Strasbourg agenda between the 5th and 8th of October, due to the international migration crisis. A significant number of MEPs considered that the European Union should encourage a diplomatic solution to the war in Syria, by reconciling the positions of the United States of America and Russia.

During the debate in the European Parliament RMDSZ MEP Csaba Sógor pointed out that the solution of the conflict lays primarily in the hands of the major global political players, the United States and Russia, as well as the countries in the region, while the target of the  massive migration is Europe, especially the more developed Western Member states. The politician said that Europe's fall into this trap is all the more disappointing, considering that at the moment it seems that the EU is not able to influence in any way events from Syria".

In his speech Csaba Sógor criticised the fact that rather than taking each other's concerns and interests into consideration, the Member States are, in an unprecedented manner, adopting decisions with a majority of votes in the Council in a crucially important issue – referring to  the mandatory quota system adopted by the Council despite the fact that Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic voted against it, and Finland abstained.