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Eastern members breached EU law by refusing refugees: court advisor
BRUSSELS, Oct 31, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
likely broke EU law by refusing to take in asylum-seekers at the height of
the refugee crisis in 2015, the top EU court’s legal advisor said Thursday.
The opinion issued by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general,
Eleanor Sharpston, does not determine what the court will end up deciding in
the ongoing case, but her advice is often influential.
“By refusing to comply with the provisional and time-limited mechanism for
the mandatory relocation of applicants for international protection, Poland,
Hungary and the Czech Republic have failed to fulfil their obligations under
EU law,” she found, according to a statement given by the court.
Poland hit out at the assessment, with a government spokesman saying “the
most important objective… is to ensure the security of citizens,” according
to the country’s PAP news agency.
Warsaw acted “in the interest of Polish citizens and in the defence
against uncontrolled migration,” said the spokesman, Piotr Mueller.
In 2015, as Europe struggled with an influx of asylum-seekers, many of
them from war-torn Syria, the European Union announced a temporary mechanism
to relocate thousands of refugees from the hardest-hit countries of Italy and
Greece to other parts of the bloc.
But the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland refused, triggering a complaint
against them by the European Commission.
Sharpston decided the three countries’ arguments invoking security
concerns were insufficient because they still had the right to bar
individuals deemed a threat, and a “spirit of mutual trust and cooperation
must prevail”.
– ‘Burden-sharing’ –
In a sharply worded conclusion, the advocate general said that for some
member states to duck their obligations towards EU solidarity because they
viewed the decisions as “unwelcome or unpopular is a dangerous first step
towards the breakdown of the orderly and structured society governed by the
rule of law”.
“The principle of solidarity necessarily sometimes implies accepting
burden-sharing,” her opinion stated.
In the end, a 2016 deal struck between the EU and Turkey greatly reduced
the number of asylum-seekers reaching Europe.
Turkish authorities stepped up their efforts to prevent crossings to
Greece in return for billions of euros in EU aid money.
But, while the urgency has diminished, the principle of relocating refugees
and asylum-seekers remains important in the EU as it struggles to come up
with a workable new system to distribute migrants among the member states.
Work on a revised system has stalled because of reticence by eastern
member states.
In September, four countries — France, Germany, Italy and Malta —
reached an agreement between themselves for the relocation of asylum-seekers,
hoping it would serve as the nucleus for a wider, permanent arrangement for
the EU.
But resistance is limiting its uptake, notwithstanding the relocation to
France and Germany of some of the 100 migrants who disembarked on Italy’s
island of Sicily on Wednesday from a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operated
ship that rescued them in the Mediterranean.
BSS/AFP/RY/1925hrs