Central Europe Leaders: ‘Migration No Answer To Falling Birthrate’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary
(Worthy News) – Leaders of several Central and Eastern European nations have warned the European Union that they will not accept immigration as an answer to the bloc’s falling birth rate.
The prime ministers of EU states Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the president of Serbia, which isn’t an EU member, made the warning in a signed declaration.
“Increasing the number of European children is essential to preserving Europe’s Christian culture and other religious traditions for future generations,” said the statement.
“Migration should not be seen as the main tool to tackle demographic challenges.”
They also asked the 27-nation EU to keep the family policy under national jurisdiction amid concerns about perceived interference in these policies by Brussels.
The declaration came on the sidelines of the two-day Budapest Demographic Summit, where government and church leaders are among delegates discussing ways to halt the declining birth rates in the Western world.
LOW BIRTHRATE
The European Union’s birth rate has been decreasing since 2000, Eurostat figures show, with 1.53 live births per woman in 2019, well below the 2.1 mark considered sufficient to prevent a decline in population numbers
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces a tough election next year, has made Christian family policies and fighting migration key policy priorities. He has warned of a new migration wave threatening Europe following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamist Taliban group.
Orbán, who views Muslim immigration to Europe as a threat to the continent’s cultural identity, visited a steel fence on the EU’s border with Serbia with his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babis.
Babis is also facing an election in two weeks, and like Orbán, he is campaigning on a strongly anti-migrant platform.
“The only sustainable solution against the extinction of Europe is to increase the birth rate,” Babis told the Budapest Demographic Summit.
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