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EC shouldn't be given the authority to decide on migration issue: Slovak PM, FM

Xinhua, September 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The mechanism for refugee redistribution based on quotas, presented at the European Parliament on Wednesday by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, has several positive features but oversteps the mark in some areas, announced Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

Among the positives, Lajcak said, were the need for help and solidarity, improvement in the 'return' policy, and efforts to address the problems where they originate.

According to Lajcak, however, the EC shouldn't have the authority to decide on this issue.

"It's something that should be decided by the democratically elected leaders of the European Union," stressed Lajcak, adding the proposal gave enormous authority to the EC.

"Secondly, the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) countries don't consider the mandatory quotas mechanism to be addressing the issue. In this regard we have many issues, including that the migrants themselves don't want the quotas," said Lajcak. He pointed to the fact that over the past weekend 14,000 migrants had passed through Austria [en route to Germany], and only 730 applied for asylum there.

For his part, Juncker called on Europe to not be afraid of accepting the current influx of asylum seekers, as the incoming migrants represented only a minute share (0.11 percent) of the total EU population.

The EC president expressed a wish that EU-member states' interior ministers would approve the proposal for the emergency relocation of 160,000 migrants at their upcoming session in Brussels on Sept. 14. The proposed program would be mandatory.

Meanwhile, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that he would like the EU to stop preaching to the Visegrad Four (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) over its negative attitude towards the imposition of mandatory quotas for the distribution.

"If somebody has a different opinion, it doesn't mean that they should be scolded. There can't be a principle in place in the EU that if you aren't with us, you're against us. It's also necessary to have regard for different opinions and strive to find a solution that will be beneficial for all," said Fico after the Slovak government session.

Slovakia demanded that such serious decisions be adopted consensually within the EU. If it wasn't possible to reach a consensus, then it was necessary to seek a different solution.

"It can't be that somebody announces a result in advance, and the rest should adapt to it. It shouldn't be up to the European Commission to decide on this, but the European Council by way of a consensus," said Fico in response to the speech earlier in the day from Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who proposed that Slovakia should obligatorily receive 2,287 immigrants for the time being.

"We keep hearing from the European Commission about mandatory quotas, but nobody is putting up any arguments. The quotas are irrational, they don't resolve anything," concluded Fico. Endit