Migration row clouds EU summit in Brussels

Poland and Hungary blocked an agreement on migration at a summit of European Union leaders on Friday, preventing a joint position on one of the union’s most sensitive political issues in a largely symbolic protest.

The leaders had hoped to give their blessing to a reform package previously agreed by justice and interior ministers, which had been backed by the required majority of EU states, including Ireland.

However, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán revealed they were unhappy with an aspect of the deal that would take pressure off frontline border member states through transfers of asylum seekers for processing in other parts of the EU.

‘Migrant ghettos’

Mr Orbán’s political director described it as a “huge battle” and said Hungary and Poland were resisting a plan by “Brussels” to force them to build “migrant ghettos”, reflecting Mr Orbán’s habitual presentation of himself to a domestic audience as attending the summits to resist EU overreach.

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Hungary and Poland insisted that the plan should have unanimous support, rather than the qualified majority vote (QMV) that was legally required to approve it in this case.

“I do understand that Poland and Hungary have a particular grievance that QMV was used, and they as countries don’t want to be told to take in migrants but we take a view that there has to be burden sharing and there has to be solidarity,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told reporters on arrival at the summit.

The deal would oblige countries to take in a quota of migrants which arrive first in frontier countries such as Greece and Italy, or they could opt to pay into a fund if they decline to take them.

“One thing is absolutely sure — we are going to see a lot of irregular migration into Europe over the summer. This issue is going to grow as an issue not go away, and there’s no way any one country can deal with irregular migration on its own, we have to work together,” Mr Varadkar added.

“The only way we can have open borders within Europe is if we have strong borders around it.”

‘Smuggling networks’

In a statement laying out the majority position, European Council president Charles Michel said the union had to work together to break “the business model of traffickers and smuggling networks” and tackle root causes of irregular migration to “avoid that people embark on such perilous journeys”.

A landmark deal was reached last month on how to reform the EU’s migration system, ending years of deadlock on the issue.

It only required a qualified majority of member states to pass, meaning the opposition of Hungary and Poland will not stall its progress. However, their objections raised questions about whether they will implement the agreement or refuse to co-operate once it comes into force.

“It has been decided,” said Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel. ”We cannot come back and say: ‘no we don’t agree’.”

The EU leaders quickly reached an agreement on other topics of the summit, setting out the EU’s relationship with China and on the economic outlook, but Poland and Hungary prevented a consensus on migration.

They also agreed to continue to support Ukraine and back future “security commitments” to the country, while commissioning further work on how to use Russian assets to pay for its reconstruction.