EU commissioner: Poland’s criticism of migrant pact “incomprehensible” as it would benefit from system

The Polish government’s criticism of a planned EU system for redistributing migrants and asylum seekers is “incomprehensible”, says the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. In fact, claims Ylva Johansson, Poland would benefit from the system due to its generous support for Ukrainian refugees.

Earlier this month, EU member states approved the new migration pact, which would see countries either have to receive a certain number of migrants or make a “solidarity” payment for each one they refuse. Poland and Hungary were the only countries to vote against the proposal.

The Polish government says it is opposed to any system of “forced relocation” of migrants. However, in an interview with Polish news website Onet, Johansson argued that the claim that the plan introduces forced relocation “is not true”.

“Most [member states] do not want mandatory relocation,” she noted, and so “the migration pact is based on a voluntary principle” where “the reception of migrants [is] one of the options to choose from”.

Onet then put to the commissioner that the alternative, of paying €20,000 per migrant a country refuses to receive, is a “financial punishment” and is unfair for a country like Poland, which received millions of Ukrainian refugees and continues to host over a million of them.

Johansson, however, noted that the plan includes an “exception for countries that are under migratory pressure, such as Poland…This means that Poland will not have to participate in these solidarity activities”. In fact, “countries that are under such pressure, as Poland is now, will benefit from” the system.

But the Polish government has noted that such an exemption is not automatic but needs to be approved by Brussels, which could make it another tool used against Poland by the EU.

“There are no grounds for such concerns,” assured Johansson, who said that the exemption had been added to the pact specifically with Poland and the Czech Republic, another country that has taken in many Ukrainian refugees, in mind.

“The Czech Republic was very pleased and proud when this article, granting exemption from relocation and other solidarity measures, was added,” said the commissioner. “I am surprised that Poland interprets this article differently.”

“Let me repeat once again, in accordance with the principles of the migration pact, member states that are under migratory pressure, such as Poland, will not have to participate in relocation,” she added. “Furthermore, they can ask other countries to apply the solidarity measures described in the migration pact to them.”

“Poland, by hosting over one million refugees, has already shown great solidarity and therefore can benefit from the new solidarity measures included in the migration pact rather than feel obliged to fulfil the additional requirements contained therein.”

Johansson was also asked about the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party’s announcement that it would this year hold a national referendum on the EU’s plans “to introduce mechanisms for the forced relocation of illegal economic migrants”.

She said that the idea is “completely incomprehensible” because the EU’s plans “do not mention mandatory relocation”. She also noted that the migration pact has been approved by a majority of member states and it makes little sense to hold a national referendum “on regulations when they are being finalised in Brussels”.

In response to Johansson’s interview, a leading PiS figure, Radosław Fogiel, head of Poland’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, dismissed it as part of a “marketing” campaign being “served up to Poles” to suggest the migration pact will not cause any problems.

He told Polskie Radio that it was not surprising there is scepticism from Poland as to whether it would be granted an exemption to the pact given that the European Commission has previously “not kept its word” in negotiations over unlocking frozen Polish post-pandemic recovery funds.

Main image credit: Óglaigh na hÉireann/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

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.