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Central Europe
June 9, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
EU warning on migrant quotas raises the stakes
bne IntelliNews
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on June 8 urged the Czech Republic to reconsider its decision to stop accepting migrants under an EU scheme to share asylum seekers who arrived in Greece and Italy.
Speaking at Prague’s Charles University, Juncker said: “I sincerely hope that, as in so many other cases, European reason, spirit and values will prevail and that the Czech government will recon- sider its course so that we do not have to resort to legal infringement procedures, (which) we will do if nothing changes.”
The comments came in the wake of a warning by the European Commission on June 6 that mem- ber states which don’t follow the quota rules for asylum seekers could face infringement proceed- ings. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have all refused to take any refugees under the 2015 decision by the EU to redistribute 120,000 refugees that have arrived in the bloc, mostly in Greece and Italy. Hungary and Slovakia have both lodged cases against the quotas with the European Court of Justice. The Czech Repub- lic, which has for the past few years sought to play the model member state when compared with
its regional peers, is reported to have accepted a dozen of the 2,600 refugees it is required to host.
The rebuke from Brussels follows shortly after Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec – who has espoused increasingly reactionary stances in re- cent months – announced that a cabinet meeting had agreed the country will not accept any more migrants, citing raised security concerns.
The EU has shown increasing confidence to take on member states flouting bloc legislation in the name of populism since Emmanuel Macron de- feated the far-right Front National in May’s French election. The Visegrad states have felt the brunt of that robust turn, and they appear to be on a crash course with Brussels.
EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos warned that action against states that refuse to accept their responsibilities could be announced very soon. That puts the spotlight on Visegrad. The same official threatened in mid- May to launch an infringement process should Hungary and Poland fail to comply with
the quotas.
“We will specify our position on opening infringe- ment procedures against the member states
that have not relocated anyone at all or have not pledged any places for almost one year since we all decided to do it together,” he said, according to Euractiv.
A similar message was issued by commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud, who told report- ers in Brussels that EU states need to start relo- cating people and pledging places, or face sanc- tions, reported EU Observer.
Similar threats were made around a year ago, but went nowhere. However, the EU’s latest warning comes as Brussels shows increased confidence to take on the populists in power across much
of Visegrad. The European Parliament called on May 17 for the Article 7 “nuclear option” to