Joint statement released without content related to immigration policy
Hungary, Poland oppose joint response to immigration issue
As leaders of the European Union (EU) showed differences of opinion on the illegal immigration issue, the adoption of a joint statement aimed at jointly responding to the immigration issue failed.
According to the Associated Press on the 6th (local time), EU leaders did not adopt a joint statement on the issue of illegal immigration at the European Political Community (EPC) summit held in Granada, Spain.
This statement was scheduled to include a paragraph related to immigration, but it was deleted from the original bill after the summit due to differences in positions among member states.
In particular, Hungary and Poland, which have strongly opposed the influx of illegal immigrants, opposed the joint response.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, “An agreement on immigration is politically impossible, and will become even more impossible now and in the next few years,” and compared it to “(Hungary) being legally raped.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who is up for re-election this month, also criticized the government’s immigration policy, maintaining the government’s stance of blocking immigrants for security reasons.
Prime Minister Morawiecki emphasized, “This policy is no different from the orders of Brussels (EU) and Berlin (Germany), and Poland will resist it.”
At a press conference after the summit, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen avoided mentioning the opposition of Hungary and Poland and said, “(This agreement) was a very important piece in the overall puzzle of the migration and asylum agreement.”
Previously, the majority of EU interior ministers agreed on a draft new immigration policy that included provisions for setting up immigration processing facilities outside the EU and screening those eligible for asylum.
According to the draft, if the number of asylum seekers increases rapidly due to emergency situations such as war, natural disaster, or climate crisis, countries on the front line of the EU border can request ‘solidarity contributions’ from other EU countries to quickly send refugees or receive support.
It also includes extending the period for which refugees are held in facilities while the asylum application process is in progress from the current 12 weeks to a maximum of 20 weeks.
The agreement must undergo further negotiations and be approved by the European Parliament, and the European Commission aims to pass it before the European Parliament elections in June 2024.
Hungary and Poland cannot veto the final agreement. However, it has caused friction with other member states in the past by not following EU policies, and it is expected that it will not implement this immigration policy as well.
Source: Donga