Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday Poland would not accept the European Union’s immigrant resettlement mechanism despite the European Parliament’s approval of legislation designed to curb migration to the continent, Polish media reported.
Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw:
We will find ways that even if the migration pact comes into force in more or less unchanged form, we will protect Poland against this relocation mechanism.
Tusk emphasised that Poland had already accepted about 1 million Ukrainian refugees. The minister maintains Poland’s tough stance on migration, which was held by his predecessors.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted major changes to EU migration legislation after eight years of deadlock. The new legislation is designed to tighten border controls and the asylum process.
The reform requires EU countries to accept asylum seekers from “frontline” states such as Italy and Greece, or provide money or other resources to these pressurised countries.
Under current EU rules, arrival countries are responsible for receiving and vetting asylum seekers and returning those deemed inadmissible. The new rules will come into force in 2026, after the European Commission determines how to implement them.
Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost elections last autumn, has been critical of the reforms. The French and Spanish parties Rassemblement National and Vox, as well as Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary, voted against parts of the asylum and migration pact, saying it was “a licence for migrant smugglers and an abandonment of the sovereignty of member states”.
Supporters of the law say it would speed up asylum procedures at the EU border, introduce new screening systems and return people who do not qualify for international protection to their home countries. “It’s a balance between solidarity and responsibility. This is the European way,” Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, said on Wednesday.
The “migration pact” will now go to Council member states, which must vote on it by qualified majority on 29 April.
