Hungary ignoring EU border recommendation

To justify his decision, Orban cited the danger of new eruptions of coronary cases.

The European Union, on June 30th, has finalised a list of countries with fewer cases of coronarys whose citizens are allowed to enter the bloc by July 1st.

Hungary, home to nearly 10 million people, has so far reported just over 4,100 cases of coronary and about 590 deaths.

“We, currently, cannot implement the EU's request to allow the entry of non-EU citizens, except for Serbia”, Orban said in a Facebook video message.

Budapest has re-opened its border with neighbouring Serbia, which has a large ethnic Hungarian population that lives mainly along the border with Hungary in May.

But removing travel restrictions for more countries outside the EU “would go against healthcare interests for the Hungarian people”, Orban said.

Countries on the EU list are: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Japan, Georgia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay, as well as China if there is reciprocity. The United States and Russia are not on the list.

Several other EU countries have also expressed reservations about lifting travel restrictions.

Austria has said on July 1st that it will follow the EU recommendation, but not for Serbia and Montenegro. /Rel