Poland was one of two countries to vote against new migration and asylum rules approved last night by EU member states. In response to the deal, which will require countries to either take in migrants or make a payment for each relocation they refuse, Warsaw says it “will not agree to the imposition of absurd ideas on us”.
The new pact, hailed as “historic” by Sweden, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, is intended to ease the pressure on the frontline countries – Italy and Greece in particular – that have received large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers arriving across the Mediterranean.
It would relocate some of those people to other member states. If a country does not want to take them in, it could instead use a “solidarity mechanism” to make a financial contribution of €20,000 for each relocation it refuses.
Under the new scheme, at least 30,000 migrants per year would be redistributed away from Italy, Greece etc to other parts of the EU. Countries who don’t want to take asylum seekers could pay €20,000 per person ‘solidarity’ fee instead https://t.co/zNWP7jQXlN pic.twitter.com/vXLxQvIkkh
— Georg von Harrach (@georgvh) June 8, 2023
Ahead of yesterday’s European Council summit of EU interior ministers, there had been doubts as to whether an agreement could be reached. A group of around ten states, led by Italy, was opposed to the deal, reports Politico Europe.
However, last-minute compromises satisfied the demands of some of those holdouts, and in the end, the agreement, which required majority rather than unanimous support, was endorsed by 21 of the EU’s 27 member states.
Four countries – Bulgaria, Malta, Lithuania and Slovakia – abstained from voting and only two opposed the plan – Poland and Hungary, which have long rejected the idea of relocating migrants and asylum seekers – reports Polish state broadcaster TVP.
In 2020, Poland and Hungary, along with the Czech Republic, were found by the European Court of Justice to have violated EU law by refusing to take in refugees under a previous quota system. However, Prague voted in favour of last night’s agreement.
Poland and six other eastern members have jointly expressed opposition to the EU creating another system to relocate refugees between states.
Warsaw says it will "not consent" to any "cultural experiment imposed on us" by relocating "illegal immigrants" https://t.co/mZO5PPz7Eq
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 9, 2020
The deal, which still needs to be negotiated with the European Commission and European Parliament, was condemned by the Polish government.
“The compulsory relocation mechanism has already once collapsed like a house of cards,” tweeted Europe minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk last night, referring to the 2015 quota system that Poland previously refused to comply with. “It proved to be unfeasible, harmful and insufficient to meet the challenges.”
“Poland is a country that has successfully managed the largest migration crisis since World War Two. We will not agree to the imposition of absurd ideas on us,” he added.
Last year, millions of refugees from Ukraine entered Poland after Russia’s invasion, and more than a million stayed in the country. During that crisis, the Polish government repeatedly called on the EU to provide funds to help it house and support the refugees.
Speaking yesterday to TVP, Polish deputy interior minister Bartosz Grodecki argued it was unfair that the EU had provided the equivalent of around €200 per Ukrainian refugee to countries hosting them but was now asking countries to pay €20,000 for each relocation they refuse.
The Polish government has also criticised the fact that the new migration agreement was approved by a majority vote rather than through unanimity. “There is no solidarity without unity,” said Grodecki.
“An asylum system that forces you to accept migrants and provides for high penalties in the event of refusal has nothing to do with solidarity,” he added.
Mechanizm obowiązkowej relokacji już raz rozsypał się jak domek z kart, okazując się niewykonalny, szkodliwy i nieadekwatny do wyzwań.
🇵🇱 jest krajem, który skutecznie zarządził największym kryzysem migracyjnym po II WŚ.
Nie zgodzimy się na narzucanie nam absurdalnych pomysłów.— S Szynkowski vel Sęk (@SzSz_velSek) June 8, 2023
Main image credit: Wesley R. Dickey/Flickr (under public domain)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
