BUDAPEST, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday blamed the Hungarian-born American billionaire George Soros for being behind the European Union's (EU) criticism against Hungary.
"Strangely, after the reception of Soros in Brussels, all of the European institutions put more pressure on Hungary," he told a press conference, after meeting with State Minister of Georgia on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Victor Dolidze.
The European Court of Justice should dismiss a challenge by Hungary and Slovakia to a scheme to share thousands of refugees among member states under a quota system, the court's senior lawyer Yves Bot said earlier Wednesday.
The two countries filed lawsuits with the European Court of Justice in 2015 after the European Commission pushed through the mandatory quotas to ease the migrant crisis, over the objections of Budapest and Bratislava.
But the court's advocate general Yves Bot, in an official legal opinion, "proposes that the court should dismiss the actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the provisional mechanism for the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers".
The proposal falls completely in line with what is called the Soros plan, according to Szijjarto, who added that "We do not want to accept illegal migrants, we will wait for the decision of the European Court of Justice".
"The decision about the relocations goes against the rule of European law, such a decision cannot be taken away from a member state. Each state must be able to decide who it lets in or not within its own territory. The European laws are clear, this right cannot be taken away," he stressed.
"Furthermore this decision goes totally against common sense, as it is interpreted as an invitation by those who seek better economic opportunities in Europe, and by the smugglers, who use this to make their customers believe that they can come to Europe," he said.
The first and most important task of the Hungarian government is the protection of Hungarian people, that is why we will do everything to prevent illegal migrants from coming here, he concluded.
The Hungarian government has been at odds with Soros, claiming that Soros-funded NGOs want to weaken Hungary's security.
The EU relocation scheme concerns some 160,000 refugees. According to the European Commission, more than 24,000 refugees have been relocated in the framework of the quota decision up to now.
A tide of refugees fleeing war in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and poverty in other Middle Eastern and African countries in 2015 led to Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.
