“An attack on Europe is underway. Europe’s borders are not secure. The security of the inhabitants of our continent is at stake,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a video statement. He added that he will propose “a secure border plan” to EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
Weeks ago, EU countries took a step forward on asylum law reform by agreeing on a plan to share responsibility for migrants who enter Europe without authorization. The affair is at the root of one of the bloc’s longest-running political crises.
The agreement offsets the obligation of the countries where most migrants arrive to receive and house them with the requirement that other members provide them with support, be it financial or by receiving refugees. Countries that refuse to receive migrants could pay 20,000 euros ($21,400) per person.
The plan was approved by a qualified majority of two thirds, with the votes against Poland and Hungary, which will seek at the summit to question the legal validity of that decision.
Morawiecki said his “plan is clear: ‘no’ to the forced relocation of migrants, ‘no’ to the violation of the veto rights of individual states, and ‘no’ to violations of the principle of liberty, the principle of that the States make decisions on their own, ‘no’ to the sanctions imposed by Brussels on the States”.
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic refused to accept migrant quotas hastily imposed by the EU in 2015, when more than 1 million people, mainly Syrians fleeing war, entered Europe. The EU supreme court ruled in 2020 that they had not respected the laws of the block.
The number of people trying to enter the EU without authorization is increasing. The Frontex agency, which monitors the borders and coasts, said that between January and May there were 50,300 attempts, more than double the number in the same period last year and the highest number since 2017. But those numbers are tiny compared to those that record Turkey, Lebanon or Jordan.
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Gera reported from Warsaw
FUENTE: Associated Press
