Czechia abstained in the upcoming vote on the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, said Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS) after this week’s cabinet meeting, adding that the pact’s new version is worse than the one Czechia helped prepare when it held the EU presidency in the second half of 2022.
“It was really crucial for the Czech Republic to secure a pact that would enable an effective return policy and secure protection of the external borders,” said Kupka.
But Kupka pointed to the additional bureaucracy such a new proposal would create.
“The changes that the proposal has undergone during the negotiations with the European Parliament have unfortunately moved away from what we, as the Czech Republic, would consider good,” he added.
After years of talks, EU countries agreed on the new rules in December. The Belgian Presidency has started finalising the individual legislative texts, with a view to final adoption probably this month, though the proposal still needs approval from EU ministers and MEPs.
A set of new rules on migration and asylum will include more effective checks on migrants and the faster return of unsuccessful asylum seekers to their countries of origin. It also introduces compulsory solidarity between all states, which will help overburdened countries either by accepting some of the migrants or by providing financial or material support.
Last December, the Czech government welcomed the agreement on the rules, with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) stressing that they do not mention mandatory relocation quotas but instead contain measures that will help asylum and migration policy.
The opposition, however, criticised the rules, with ANO leader Andrej Babiš describing them as an “invitation to millions of migrants to Europe”. The opposition and other anti-EU parties have long attacked Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN) for agreeing to the migration pact and want him to follow the example of Poland and Hungary, which rejected the proposal.
The current ‘softening’ of the government’s stance may, therefore, be an attempt to reduce the pressure on the cabinet in the run-up to the EU elections in June, during which migration is certain to be one of the key issues.
(Ondřej Plevák | Euractiv.cz)
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Source: euractiv.com
