EU summit
Veto threat against EU asylum plans – Scholz unimpressed
Viktor Orban (r), Prime Minister of Hungary, talks to Giorgia Meloni (l), Prime Minister of Italy, and Mateusz Morawiecki (back), Prime Minister of Poland, during the EU summit. photo
© Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP/dpa
Can Poland and Hungary jeopardize European asylum reform plans? The Polish head of government openly threatens to do so. Chancellor Scholz is still relaxed at the EU summit.
It means that the states on the EU’s external borders have to make a contribution by registering those who arrive and giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum. At the same time, other states would have to take responsibility for some of the refugees so that the burden does not remain with the border states alone.
According to the plans, taking in refugees will no longer be voluntary, but mandatory. Countries that do not want to take in refugees would be forced to pay compensation. At the same time, numerous additions and tightening of the current rules are planned in order to limit illegal migration.
In particular, this includes a much tougher treatment of people from countries that are considered relatively safe. In the future, after crossing the border, they will be taken to strictly controlled reception facilities under conditions similar to detention. There would then normally be checked within twelve weeks whether they have a chance of asylum. If not, they should be sent back immediately.
Poland announces veto
Poland and Hungary expressed sharp criticism of the project. Before leaving for Brussels, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that he would veto the solidarity mechanism. “The PiS government will certainly not agree to experiments and blackmail in relation to the admission of illegal immigrants,” he said.
Not effectively protecting the borders is a mistake that threatens the survival of the EU. “Our people, our citizens, the Europeans will pay for this mistake,” he said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had recently made similar statements several times.
It was initially unclear how Poland intends to veto the asylum plans, since decisions in the area of EU migration policy do not have to be made unanimously according to EU legal opinion. It is conceivable, however, that Hungary and Poland could protest and block other decisions or declarations that require unanimous decisions. At EU summits, for example, unanimity is always required.
Negotiations with the European Parliament on the plans for the asylum reform are to begin shortly. The aim is to pass them before the European elections next June.
appeal to humanity
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, appealed to humanity in view of the ongoing general debate on migration in the EU. No man, woman or child should die trying to reach Europe in European waters. “That has to be the absolute point that we never forget when we talk about numbers, because we tend to get desensitized when the numbers get bigger,” she said. Metsola is thus answering a question as to where human rights remain in the face of numerous devastating boat accidents and violence to which migrants are sometimes exposed.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 2,400 people died trying to escape across the Mediterranean in 2022. Most recently, around two weeks ago, a shipwreck shook off the coast of Greece. Hundreds of migrants who wanted to cross from Libya to Italy drank with him.
Difficult talks were also expected at the two-day EU summit on the planned stronger cooperation with Tunisia on migration policy. According to diplomats, there is dissatisfaction, especially in Italy, that countries like Germany want to attach strict conditions to planned financial aid for the state in North Africa. Rome fears that Tunisia might not be willing to provide more help in the fight against illegal migration if the conditions are too strict. Cooperation with Tunisia is relevant because the state is currently both an important country of origin and an important transit country for undesired migration across the Mediterranean to the EU.