Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk made the statement via social media on Wednesday evening.
Earlier in the day, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, unveiled a plan by the bloc’s executive Commission to introduce mandatory relocation of migrants, Polish state news agency PAP reported, citing unofficial sources in Brussels.
The plan, outlined to EU ambassadors, is a return to proposals made by Brussels in response to a migration crisis in 2015, according to Polish officials.
At the time, several member states came out against mandatory relocation, prompting the European Commission to launch law-infringement procedures against these countries, including Poland, the PAP news agency reported.
EU countries to be fined if they refuse to accept migrants?
On Wednesday, Johansson proposed a mechanism for “mandatory relocation of irregular migrants,” under which member states that refuse to take part in the scheme would be asked to pay EUR 22,000 for each migrant they refuse to admit, a Polish diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Szynkowski vel Sęk commented on Twitter: “Poland has always consistently opposed mandatory mechanisms for the relocation of migrants. We were right. These proposals turned out to be harmful and inefficient.”
He added: ”We'll consistently and firmly oppose attempts to revive these proposals.”
During Wednesday’s meeting with Johansson, the Polish ambassador to the EU, Andrzej Sadoś, said that a million refugees from war-torn Ukraine had been granted international protection in Poland, according to PAP.
Sadoś added that the EU had allocated EUR 200 million for measures to support them, it reported.
The Polish ambassador reportedly argued that this meant EUR 200 for every refugee from Ukraine, while at the same time Brussels planned to charge member countries EUR 22,000 for every “irregular migrant” they refused to admit under the “mandatory relocation scheme."
“It’s a glaring disparity,” Sadoś said, according to sources.
The European Commission has proposed to relocate 30,000 migrants to other member countries, with an option to extend this number to 120,000 people, the PAP news agency reported.
Thursday is day 456 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, polskieradio24.pl