Poland, with the support of Hungary, blocked the work of the European Union summit because it does not agree with the blocʼs migration reforms.
France24 and PAP write about it.
The migration reform of the European Union aims to distribute migrants in member states, and those who do not want to accept asylum seekers must pay money to other states that allowed them to host migrants.
In Brussels, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country will not agree to a complete change of migration policy and advocates a voluntary approach in this matter. He added that a referendum will be held in a few months, where the Poles will say "whether they want a safe country, or whether they want the pictures in Poland that they see in the countries of Western Europe."
EU interior ministers adopted a negotiating position on the reform of migration regulation in the EU. However, Poland and Hungary voted against supporting the migration pact.
- In June 2023, the Supreme Court of the EU ruled that Hungary violated the rights of migrants and the laws of the European Union. If the Hungarian government does not change its laws after the courtʼs ruling, the European Commission may file a new lawsuit demanding that Budapest be fined.
- Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, migrants have made 12,300 attempts to illegally cross the Polish border. But on the more than 200-kilometer section of the border with Belarus, an electronic system is already in place that detects all such attempts. The largest number of migrants trying to cross the Polish border come from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq. Once a car of Polish border guards was fired upon from the territory of Belarus.
- The crisis with illegal migrants from Belarus began after the sanctions of the European Union and a number of Western countries in December 2021. Officials of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are sure that the flow of migrants was part of a hybrid war against the EU by the authorities of Belarus and the Russian Federation. Polish special services provided evidence that the border assault was directed by the general of the border service of Belarus, Podlinyov.