Warsaw: EU's refugee resettlement procedure threatens Poland's security
The European Commission scheme for the distribution of refugees among the countries of the European Union is erroneous and threatens the national security of Poland.
This was nnoted in the Minister of the Interior of Poland's response to a statement by the European Commission on the transition to the next stage of prosecution against Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary over their refusal to accept refugees in agreement with European Union quotas.
As follows from the statement of the Polish ministry, "the European Commission has not responded properly to the arguments of Poland related to the guarantee of security for our citizens…We support our position regarding the resettlement mechanism; we believe that it is erroneous and threatens security," the statement stresses.
Poland noted that they do not accept the European Commission exceeding its authority regarding "interference in national competencies in the fields of security, integration and social issues." According to Warsaw, individual countries, not the EU, should be in charge of security policy.
"The Polish government's duty is to firmly protect the citizens of Poland from mistaken, ill-conceived, binding decisions that will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the level of the country's security," the Polish Interior Ministry said.
It is noted that Poland, together with the Czech Republic and Hungary, who also received a warning from the European Commission in the resettlement of refugees, will jointly consider the possibility of next steps in this situation.
The day prior, the European Commission submitted reasoning for non-compliance with their legal obligations regarding the resettlement of refugees to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The European Commission noted that, despite repeated calls for action and the start of a procedure to bring the three countries to justice last month, the countries continue to violate their legal obligations and have shown disregard for their commitments to Greece, Italy and other EU member states.
In the fall of 2015, the previous Polish government, under Ewa Kopacz, agreed to accept 7,000 refugees from Greece and Italy as part of the decision of the EU Council to distribute 160,000 refugees from the south between the EU countries. The current Polish government, under Beata Szydło, has refused to comply with the decision of the previous one, on the grounds of security issues.