Poland’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Andrzej Sadoś, informed his colleagues in Brussels that the draft regulation on crisis situations under the Migration and Asylum Pact opens the possibility to freely determine the number of migrants to be relocated by the EC. He was also against such provisions, according to information from PAP sources.
In Brussels, the last element of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, namely the regulation on crisis situations, is being dealt with at working group level. The subject was raised on Wednesday at a meeting of the ambassadors of the member states.
What does the project entail?
According to Poland, the draft regulation on crisis situations not only confirms the “de facto mandatory nature of relocation”, but also opens the possibility for the European Commission to freely determine the number of people relocated. Sadoś is said to have said at the meeting that if relocation is halted, the EC would also be able to determine the amount of financial equivalent that EU countries would have to pay for a migrant they refused to accept.
According to PAP information, the Polish diplomat said at a meeting in Brussels that such provisions are contained in art. 7 in the context of art. 8 of the draft regulation.
As he emphasized, it follows that the European Commission will always independently inform EU countries about the number of migrants that will be relocated to the Member States.
On June 30, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a conference after the EU summit in Brussels that Poland is ready to prepare a lawsuit before the CJEU in case of an attempt to violate the 2018 European Council conclusions on relocation . He pointed out that Poland considers that the only applicable regulation is this decision of the 2018 European Council.
The principle of voluntariness is the only solution
The conclusions of the June 2018 EU summit make it clear that migrants entering the EU should be referred “on a voluntary basis” to centers set up in Member States, where a distinction is made between irregular migrants who should leave the EU and those those in need of international protection. These conclusions also state that “in the context of these centers relocation and resettlement will be voluntary”.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who visited the Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday, where hundreds of migrants from North Africa are arriving, said at a press conference that “if a country does not get involved in the movement of ‘migrants’, it must pay, not only to countries under pressure, but also to third countries.” These words were said a few days after an interview with TVN24, in which Johansson said that the so-called Migration Pact, ie the EU agreement on the relocation of migrants, is not required.
In mid-June, the Sejm passed a resolution expressing opposition to the EU’s mechanism for the relocation of illegal migrants, which commits the government to vigorously oppose the proposal. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński declared in the Sejm that the issue of relocation of migrants in the European Union should be the subject of a referendum.
gah/PAP
Source: wPolityce