Poland wants migrant relocation scheme addressed at EU summit

Poland has urged that the proposed "mandatory relocation" of migrants to member states be brought up at an EU summit, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee has said.

EU interior ministers on Thursday reached a migration deal which envisages "compulsory solidarity." Although "no Member State will ever be obliged to carry out relocations," a minimum annual quota of relocations from countries where most migrants enter the EU to other countries across the bloc was set at 30,000.

The deal, which Poland and Hungary voted against, would see member countries pay about EUR 20,000 for every migrant they refuse to admit.

"We will constantly argue that this is an issue that must be addressed at an EU summit," Radoslaw Fogiel told the state-owned TVP broadcaster on Friday.

According to him, "the matter is serious on several levels" and "shows a disease in the EU."

"As part of circumventing the rules, circumventing the treaties, for example, to prevent a veto, these decisions are made at a meeting of the EU's interior ministers, where a simple majority is sufficient," Fogiel said.

He added that Poland had argued that "the issue should be decided at an EU summit, where we have the right of veto." EU summits are attended by heads of governments of member states.

"Poland did not agree and will never agree to such arrangements," Fogiel added.

In his opinion, it is "bizarre to make such decisions" in a situation where Poland has accepted millions of war refugees from Ukraine.

Poland has accepted the most Ukrainian migrants among all EU member states after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The latest vote has reignited disputes in the EU over the relocation of migrants that started in 2015 in the wake of a migrant crisis in the EU. At that time, a group of countries, including Poland, refused to take part, spurring the EC to launch EU law infringement procedures against them.