Hungary Plan to Extend Border Fence Worries Romania

After reports said that Hungary will soon start preparatory work to extend the border fence along its Serbian frontier eastwards towards Romania, the Romanian Foreign Ministry criticised the development.

"A fence between two EU member states that are also strategic partners is neither politically correct, nor in line with the European spirit," the ministry said on Tuesday.

Hungary says the extended fence is needed to stop migrants from trying to take new routes through its territory.

Romania said was also dissapointed that Budapest had informed it about the plans "only shortly before the announcement was made public".

The planned extended fence will run for around 26 km beyond the Mures/Maros river along the Romanian frontier.

Hungary has already blocked its border with Serbia by building a 175-kilometer razor wire fence, to stop refugees fleeing Middle East wars moving through Hungary to Western Europe.

More than 40,000 refugees, most of the coming from Syria and neighboring countries, have entered Hungary recently after passing through Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.

EU member states are struggling to find solutions to the biggest migration crisis facing Western Europe since World War Two.

Romania opposes the European Commission's proposal for mandatory refugee quotas, saying that it will not take in more than 1,785 refugees and migrants.

The EU interior ministers failed again on Monday to reach an agreement on the proposal for refugee quotas and postponed the decision on how a total of 160,000 refugees should be redistributed throughout the EU.

As yet, Romania has not been hit by the wave of refugees of migrants crossing the Balkans towards Germany and northern Europe. Only 913 people have applied...