Poland and Hungary showed this Friday their opposition to the reform of the European immigration system in a summit of the rulers of the European Union (EU) in Granadatwo days after a key agreement between Member States.
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“We are not afraid of the dictates that come from Brussels and Berlin,” launched the Polish Prime Minister, the nationalist Mateusz Morawiecki, upon arrival at this informal summit of heads of state and the government of the Twenty-Seven in the Andalusian city, in the south of Spain.
Morawiecki mainly criticized the attempt to impose a system to “distribute illegal migrants” between countries.
His Hungarian counterpart, the ultra-conservative Viktor Orban, in his usual provocative tone, stated: “If you are legally raped, they force you to accept something you don’t like, How is it possible to reach a compromise, an agreement? It is impossible”.
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The issue of migration, one of the thorniest among the Twenty-Seven, was added to the agenda of this informal summit, in the midst of a new wave of migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which once again created tensions in the bloc. .
The ambassadors of the EU countries reached a key agreement on Wednesday to advance the reform of the Migration and Asylum Pact, after three years of paralysis in negotiations on the matter.
The regulation, which still must be negotiated in the European Parliament, was approved by a qualified majority, with the abstentions of Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and the opposition of Poland and Hungary. –
“Big success”
The reform seeks to implement a mechanism of mandatory solidarity between Member States if any of them face the massive arrival of migrants at their borders, as occurred during the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016.
The text, which also modifies traditional asylum procedures making them less protective for migrants, required a commitment to overcome German and Italian reluctance. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the agreement this Friday, stating that it is a “great success.”
The Italian Prime Minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, welcomed the fact that Europe is “evolving towards a more pragmatic line of legality, of desire to fight against traffickers.”
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But in a text signed with his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, published this Friday, he called for urgent action in the face of the “moral crisis” that would embody illegal migration in Europe.
“This is a moral crisis,” stated the two leaders, denouncing human traffickers, “a humanitarian crime,” and a “European crisis,” since it is up to European governments to “decide who comes (to the continent), and not the traffickers”.
Declaration in the air
In practice, neither Poland nor Hungary can actually impose a veto on the reform, since these texts are approved by qualified majority, a procedure that these two countries continue to reject.
In fact, unsuccessfully demanded that the final declaration of the Grenada summit include a reference to the need to achieve unanimity to adopt immigration reform, diplomatic sources said.
This disagreement could cause the attempt to issue a common declaration on migration to fail, as happened at a summit in Brussels in the summer, when Poland and Hungary blocked the conclusions to make clear their rejection of other migration texts.
The declaration on migration that will be debated on Friday has been toughened during its preparation. The project, to which AFP had access, highlights the need to address irregular migration “immediately and decisively” and to “increase returns” of irregular migrants.
It also shows the EU’s commitment to establishing “mutually beneficial collaboration with countries of origin and transit”
AFP
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