The 27 EU heads of state and government, including Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), found no common language on migration in Brussels on Friday. The summit ended without agreement. Accordingly, Hungary and Poland blocked the summit statement.
The two countries are said to harbor resentment at being overruled recently in interior ministers’ decision on the EU’s asylum and migration pact. “There was a migration war going on in the conference room,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said before the summit. “It was a fight for freedom, not a revolt!” he described Hungary and Poland’s refusal at the summit to approve the European Union’s latest asylum plans.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas noted “bitterness over the debates on migration in 2015” at the height of the refugee crisis. “But I think we should move on,” Kallas said. It is not really clear what Hungary wants.
Otherwise “broad consensus”
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins reiterated that the leaders agreed that the focus in the future should not be on migrants already in the EU, but on migrants outside the borders. “There is broad consensus on that.”
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob has made a similar statement. “Hungary in particular has stated categorically that they do not want the migration issue mentioned at all,” he said.
In the asylum dispute, the interior ministers took a majority decision in early June that Poland and Hungary did not support. This stipulates that the acceptance of refugees in the future should no longer be voluntary, but mandatory. Countries that do not want to take in refugees should pay compensation.
Poland demands independent decision
Poland is now demanding that each EU country decide for itself how it supports countries with particularly high migration rates. The admission of those seeking protection should be voluntary, according to a Polish text proposal for the summit statement, which was available to the German news agency.
On the other hand, the summit made vague security commitments for Ukraine for the long-term future. Nehammer had clearly rejected the demands of numerous heads of state and government for more binding “security guarantees for Ukraine” at the EU summit in Brussels. “It is clear to us as neutral states that this cannot exist,” he said on Thursday. Nehammer did not want to comment on the ongoing consultation on Friday morning. China and its economic situation are also on the agenda of the summit.
Source: Krone
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