Fiala defends EU migration deal in lower house

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) had to defend agreeing to the new deal on migration solidarity to MPs on Thursday after opposition parties said the Czech government had betrayed national interests.

The reform of the EU migration policy rules out quotas for the compulsory acceptance of refugees by member states, and it is advantageous for the Czech Republic, Fiala said during the questioning of cabinet members in the lower house of parliament on Thursday.

“There will be no mandatory quotas, this agreement rules out mandatory quotas,” he said, according to Czech News Agency.

The prime minister reacted to the claim that the current government had betrayed national interests by agreeing to the reform made by Radim Fiala, who chairs the lower house group of the junior opposition movement Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), which belongs to the Identity and Democracy group at European level.

The reform on which interior ministers of EU countries agreed last week is reasonable and corresponds with the long-term interests of Czechia, Petr Fiala said.

He said the agreement would increase the protection of the EU’s external borders through the rules of the common asylum procedure and improve the expulsion of illegal immigrants. “Unlike you, I am not defending the interests of Poland or Hungary,” he said in reaction to the SPD’s call for the government to reject the reform, following the example of those two countries.

Fiala said the current rules do not work, and the changes could improve the migration situation. The prime minister also pointed out that the final shape of the reform will be determined by the European Parliament and, given its current composition, it will not be easy to find enough support for an agreement.

He also stressed the exemption from the mandatory solidarity that the Czech Republic had won with regard to Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian aggression.

One of the harshest critics of the current Czech support for the proposal is former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). However, his government supported the Commission’s original 2020 proposal, which envisaged various forms of solidarity. At that time, Babiš only warned against the return of relocation quotas.

(Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz)