EU leaders broke off migration talks early Friday (30 June) as Poland and Hungary blocked progress after they were outvoted earlier this month on a plan to overhaul its rules on migration and asylum.
EU leaders called off Thursday’s summit talks after last-ditch efforts by France and Germany and European Council President Charles Michel to break the stalemate with both countries.
Migration has been one of the most contentious issues for the EU since the 2015 migration crisis, since when the bloc had tried and failed to overhaul the bloc’s process for welcoming and relocating asylum seekers.
Earlier this month, Warsaw and Budapest were outvoted when EU home affairs ministers, after months of tense negotiations, agreed on reforming the bloc’s rules on the relocation of migrants and procedures for processing asylum seekers.
The final compromise had set quotas for willing countries and mandatory ‘financial contributions of €20,000 for each migrant for countries that refuse to relocate migrants.
However, Poland and Hungary voted against the position adopted by a qualified majority, meaning 55% of member states, representing at least 65% of the EU population, voted in favour.
The blueprint, which still needs to be approved by the European Parliament, gives a derogation for countries that have accepted at least one million asylum seekers.
Both Poland and Hungary used Thursday’s summit to express their discontent.
Warsaw argues that since an estimated 1.5 to 2 million refugees fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last February are still housed in their country, they should be exempted.
“We don’t have to be taught what solidarity is,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters before heading into the summit talks, pointing to his government’s support for Ukrainian refugees for which he later demanded financial support from the EU.
“We cannot treat in a discriminatory manner people from Ukraine and people from the Middle East or Africa,” added the Polish premier.
Warsaw had also proposed to hold a referendum on the issue.
Budapest, meanwhile, has consistently opposed any attempts to create a compulsory EU policy on relocations.
But unrelated to Thursday’s failure to produce a summit statement, the migration deal struck earlier this month will remain in place.
Although neither country can veto the position which has been agreed by ministers and will now be negotiated in trilogues with the European Parliament, Poland tabled an amendment to the post-summit conclusions stressing the need for a voluntary approach to relocations and for unanimity among EU governments.
The proposal was rejected by all other EU leaders.
Some EU diplomats, venting their frustration about migration delaying an otherwise largely consensual summit, suggested the topic will likely stay.
“The Poles and Hungarians en bloc are saying that they do not recognise the validity of the agreement, they want to return to the logic of 2018 whereby decisions are taken by consensus,” a French diplomatic source said.
“The Hungarians aren’t rational, as usual, they ask for it and ultimately give up. The Poles’ argument, meanwhile, has something to do with funding,” they added, leaving open whether agreement over the summit statement’s wording would be possible on Friday.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed to counterparts to discuss the issue again at their next summit.
“They’re so angry about this that they say they want no conclusions [on migration] at all now,” Rutte said.
Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, summed up the discussions by tweeting: “Heavy fight against the pro-migration forces of Brussels!”
Cash-for migrant deals
Alongside the debate on migrant relocations, EU leaders also discussed the prospect of striking more ‘cash for migrant control; deals with African states following the agreement of a €1 billion pact with Tunisian President Kais Saied.
The details of a memorandum of understanding for Tunisia are still being thrashed out and are unlikely to be concluded before the end of the summit on Friday.
However, a draft of the post-summit communiqué, seen by EURACTIV, suggested that EU leaders were expected to endorse the European Commission’s ambitions to broker further agreements with Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria.
“We have made a lot of progress on migration, and in the area of the migration pact, there has been clear progress,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told reporters.
On the eve of the summit, Italy was among nine EU countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea to draft a paper, seen by EURACTIV, which urged the EU to establish a new ‘Southern Partnership’ on migration and energy policy with African states.
Med states press EU for new 'southern partnership' with Africa
A group of nine Mediterranean EU countries have urged the bloc to create a formal ‘southern partnership’ with African countries based on cooperation on energy and migration, according to a document seen by EURACTIV.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters in Brussels that “on migrants, Tunisia and flexibility of resources allocation, the Council’s conclusions are quite a satisfactory starting point.”
“We are very pleased to have a paragraph on Tunisia, not only regarding migration but also on establishing a strategic partnership with North African countries,” she added.
A separate group of member states have been working on “innovative solutions” to address migration flows, including third-country agreements.
[Edited by Georgi Gotev]
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