Amendment No. 1 | Doc. 14013 | 18 April 2016

Human rights of refugees and migrants – the situation in the Western Balkans

Signatories: Mr Zsolt CSENGER-ZALÁN, Hungary, EPP/CD ; Mr Valeriu GHILETCHI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Ms Rózsa HOFFMANN, Hungary, EPP/CD ; Mr Attila KORODI, Romania, EPP/CD ; Ms Elisabeth SCHNEIDER-SCHNEITER, Switzerland, EPP/CD ; Mr Adão SILVA, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Mr Tobias ZECH, Germany, EPP/CD

Origin - 2016 - Second part-session

In the draft resolution, replace paragraph 5 with the following paragraph:

"In the absence of common EU solutions, Hungary took decisions at national level to restore order at its borders and to comply with EU law. In order to be able to protect the external borders of the EU and the Schengen area, Hungary erected fences along its borders with Serbia and Croatia, which is a legal obligation that has never been repealed. The official border crossing points, however, have always been open and fully operational. Also, the European Council stated in February that the EU needs to return to the practice of Members of the Schengen area fully applying the Schengen Borders Code and refusing entry at external borders to third-country nationals who do not satisfy the entry conditions or who have not made an asylum application despite having had the opportunity to do so."

Explanatory note

The paragraph as it stands is unbalanced and does not reflect the existing obligations of Hungary to control the entry of persons into the Schengen Area. The text is also outdated in the sense that conclusions of the European Council reinforced the Hungarian practice of the strict application of the Schengen Borders Code.