2 nations blamed for failing to take fair share of migrants
BRUSSELS — A top European Union legal adviser denounced Hungary and Slovakia on Wednesday for refusing to participate in a plan devised in 2015 to relocate migrants from Greece and Italy as the migration crisis reached its height.
The legal adviser, Yves Bot, an advocate general for the Court of Justice of the European Union, blamed Hungary and Slovakia for “partial or total failure” in the “fair sharing of burdens” in the crisis, according to a summary of his opinion.
A verdict is still to be issued in the case, but judges usually follow their advisers’ opinions; if they do so this time, Hungary and Slovakia could eventually be ordered to pay fines.
The case has highlighted the deep divide in the European Union over the question of migration. Many member states in Central and Eastern Europe are intensely opposed to a push to oblige them to accept quotas of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
The relocation rule was introduced to try to relieve the burden on Greece and Italy, where migrants — many of them fleeing the war in Syria — reached the European Union in huge numbers in 2015 and 2016.
The European Union was correct “to adopt a provisional measure for the mandatory distribution between member states of persons in need of international protection” because it was “necessary to provide an effective response to the migration crisis,” Bot wrote, according to the summary.
In a separate case that also underlined the tensions between Brussels and Central and East European states over migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for home affairs, warned the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for ignoring the relocation rules.
The commission began that case in June on the grounds that Hungary and Poland had taken no refugees, and that the Czech Republic had stopped participating in the program.
“If these member states decide to change position, we are ready to work with them to address their concerns,” Avramopoulos told a news conference in Brussels. “We don’t want to go on like this,” he added.
The legal action could also eventually result in fines from the Court of Justice for the countries involved.
Avramopoulos said the pace of relocation had significantly increased this year, with more than 3,000 transfers in June from Italy and Greece to other member states, including Finland, France, Germany and Sweden.
That still leaves more than 25,000 people eligible for relocation, according to estimates by officials at the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. The program formally ends on Sept. 26, but migrants arriving in the European Union until that date can qualify.