Poland against proposed migration law reform, EU sources report

Poland has reiterated its disagreement with the EU's proposed reforms of asylum and migration laws, EU sources told PAP on Wednesday.

Poland protested against the reform plans at Wednesday's sitting of the EU members' ambassadors in Brussels.

According to the sources, Andrzej Sadoś, Poland's EU ambassador, stated that the member states should be given a free choice of the way they participate in the EU's migration policy.

Sadoś especially protested against plans to restore a mandatory relocation system, saying the EU's emphasis on migrant quotas is most visible in the financial obligations suggested as an alternative to accepting quotas.

Under the proposed changes, member states that refuse to accept relocation quotas would have to pay EUR 22,000 per migrant. Sadoś said that the financial alternative is non-equivalent, and therefore Poland cannot agree to the concept.

In May, EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson presented the EU ambassadors with a reform plan for the community's asylum and migration system. The proposals have reignited a 2015 debate around migration laws in the wake of the then migration crisis, when some EU states, including Poland, refused to accept mandatory relocation quotas, which spurred the EC to launch EU law infringement procedures against them.