Polish president and PM condemn “EU elites imposing their diktat” through migration pact

Poland’s president and prime minister have jointly condemned the EU’s planned migration pact, which was approved by most member states yesterday. The prime minister pledged to veto the plans, though commentators have pointed out that no such possibility exists.

Yesterday, a majority of member states voted in favour of the final component of the EU’s proposed new asylum and migration policy. Diplomatic sources said that only Poland and Hungary voted against it, as they did when the plans were discussed earlier this year. Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia reportedly abstained.

The migration pact will now be discussed with the European Parliament, with the aim of bringing it into force before next year’s European elections.

In response to yesterday’s developments, President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki today spoke alongside one another to reiterate Poland’s opposition to the plans.

“The European elites are trying to impose their position and ideological approach to the issue of migration on European nations,” said Duda, quoted by broadcaster TVP. “We will defend our position and defend our borders.”

“Why should we agree to this diktat from Brussels and Berlin?” asked Morawiecki, quoted by TVN. “For the last ten years, the Germans have been wrong on all the most important matters in which it was possible to be wrong…[including] through their policy of inviting tens of millions [of immigrants].”

“We are at a turning point that will determine how Polish borders and Polish sovereignty will be treated in the future,” added the prime minister.

He pledged that at a meeting of the European Council in Spain tomorrow he would “present a hard veto against illegal immigration”.

However, the EU correspondents of two leading Polish broadcasters, Katarzyna Szymańska-Borginon of RMF and Maciej Sokołowski of TVN, both pointed out that there is no possibility for Poland to veto the pact.

Morawiecki and Duda today reiterated that Poland is opposed to the idea contained within the pact of relocating migrants within the EU from frontline countries to other member states.

However, earlier this year the EU’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, accused Poland of misrepresenting this aspect of the pact. She noted that, first of all, the relocation scheme is voluntary: instead of receiving migrants, member states can choose to make “solidarity” payments instead.

Moreover, the system is designed to exempt – and even reward – countries that are also under migratory pressure, as Poland has been since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Warsaw could, therefore, benefit from the system, she said.

However, the Polish government notes that any such exemptions would be at the whim of the European Commission, which it says has shown itself to be biased against the current authorities in Warsaw. It also says that, as a point of principle, member states should not be financially penalised for refusing migrants.

Poland has argued that, instead of relocation, the focus should be on preventing irregular migrants from entering the bloc in the first place. It says that relocation simply incentivises more migrants to come and has accused Brussels of “encouraging human trafficking”.

However, the proposed migration pact does include a number of measures intended to strengthen external borders and better facilitate deportations.

At today’s press conference, Morawiecki also warned that, if the opposition comes to power at this month’s parliamentary elections in Poland “it will be a tragedy” because they “will implement the plan to accept illegal immigrants”.

Mainstream opposition parties are more pro-EU than the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and are part of European groupings that have been supportive of the migration pact.

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Main image credit: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP

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.