Slovaks, Hungarians, and Poles voted against the deal which includes forcing countries to choose between accepting migrants or paying hefty sums of taxpayer money into a common fund.
“The Commission will make sure that member states will go beyond their fair share” of migrant relocations if needed, while the pull factors contributing to mass migration remain unaddressed.
“We need a critical mass of countries in favor of blocking boats, making it impossible for the Commission to intimidate countries who want to secure the borders,” Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers proposed.
Opposition parties are boycotting the referendum, claiming it is an attempt by ruling PiS to drum up support at the ballot box by attacking the EU’s controversial migration deal.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of those who filed asylum applications in the 27-member bloc, with the addition of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lichtenstein, were men.
Spain’s EU Council Presidency was officially launched in Madrid, where both PM Sánchez and Commission President von der Leyen said they’d push through the Migration Pact regardless of Central European objections.
Poland promises to veto the migrant relocations, Hungary questions Brussels’s extra-budgetary requests, and others keep worrying about the possibility of a resurgent Wagner coming out of Belarus. All in one day.
