An EU summit on Friday was dominated by a bitter dispute over proposed reforms to Europe’s immigration laws, though proponents of the reform insisted that resistance from Poland and Hungary would not stop the reform.
The summit did conclude on a bitter note of disagreement because the Polish and Hungarian leaders prevented the leaders from discussing migration in a joint statement of the summit’s conclusions.
However, in his own name, European Council President Charles Michel released a statement regarding asylum law and border security, and the leaders of France and Germany declared that the legislative process would go as scheduled.
“The most important thing is what our interior ministers achieved a few weeks ago with the agreement on crisis regulation, because that is what is really relevant in political terms,” said Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who hosted the summit, dismissing concerns about the clash.
But the gathering in the southern city of Granada did hand Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who is facing a general election this weekend and Hungary’s Viktor Orban a stage on which to brandish their populist credentials for their domestic audiences.
“I officially REJECT the entire paragraph of the summit conclusions regarding migration,” Morawiecki posted on social media as the summit came to an end.
Earlier, Orban provoked controversy by equating Hungary being “legally raped” to the EU “forcing through” immigration legislation that was supported by the majority of member states.
Despite their opposition preventing any mention of migration from appearing in the final declaration, France’s President Emmanuel Macron claimed that it would not affect the draft bill, which member states endorsed on Wednesday in outline.
“The text has caused disagreements between several member states,” Macron said, dismissing it as “a secondary issue because the matter is moving forward as it should after being passed by majority”.
Member states, he added, had agreed to strengthen “joint action regarding transit countries and countries of origin”.
