Poland and Hungary line up against the EU agreement on asylum

The pact reached at the end of the afternoon this Thursday by the EU interior ministers, that still has to be discussed and ratified in the European Parliamentforces countries to react when a Member State is overwhelmed by the arrival of immigrants: they will have to help either hosting or paying a fee of 20,000 euros per person rejected in case of not wanting to do so.

The agreement went ahead with the abstentions of Malta, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia and the ‘no’ of Poland and HungaryAccording to the text, each year the Commission must relocate a minimum of 30,000 people.

“This mechanism is unacceptable for us,” said Polish Deputy Interior Minister Bartosz Grodecki. “Poland will not support the introduction of a mechanism by which you have to pay for rejecting the forced relocation of migrants”, he expressed to add, according to international media reports, that “if it is mandatory it is not solidarity” and that “solidarity must be voluntary”.

The Hungarian Secretary of State for the Interior, Bence Rétvári, has criticized that with this new mandate it is “eliminated” the opinion of states “about who resides” in them.

Likewise, Rétvári He has also opposed the financial sanction for those who do not want to accept migrants and has come to ensure that the regulations “encourage illegal migration” and that member states that are in favor of migration “have pressured” others to accept the proposal.

For his part, the Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, has assured that in his opinion it would be necessary to “modify certain aspects”: “Italy will not be the migrant collection center on behalf of Europe,” he said, according to international media.

The meeting of Interior Ministers this Thursday was co-chaired by the Swedish Minister of Justice, Gunnar Strömmer, and Migration Minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, who called the agreement of “balance” between solidarity and responsibility.

In Spain, the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska qualified as a “resounding success” the agreement reached. “It is a great step to provide the EU with a more efficient, supportive and fair asylum and migration system,” said the Minister of the Interior.

“Not all problems have been solved”

By political groups, the Popular Europeans have positively valued the agreement: “With a European legal situation that really works, the numbers would be significantly reduced,” their leader, Manfred Weber, has written on social networks. «We need to end the gang bootlegger system“, has added.

Weber has also expressed that, however, “not all problems have been resolved” with the agreement. The leader of the European PP has urged the arrival of “agreements with neighboring EU countries, such as Tunisia, to control migration figures”, as well as «legally safe and standardized procedures at the external borders of the EU.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the European socialists, Birgit Sippel, has valued the arrival of the agreement it’s a statement. “It is also clear that, in view of the positions that have been adopted, difficult negotiations await usfor which there is little time left before the European elections,” he pointed out.

“Our group rejects the obligation of fast track procedures at the external borders and Parliament has followed our opinion,” said Sippel, adding: “However, should they be applied as an option, it is essential that families with children and unaccompanied minors are exempt from it».

“This agreement goes against EU values»: said the deputy of the European Greens Terry Reintke.

“The EU cannot ignore our international obligations to protect those who seek protection and the most vulnerable”, he has settled.