EU green-lights excluding Warsaw from bloc's migration pact
EU members have approved opting Poland out of the bloc's migration pact, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said in Brussels on Monday, where he and other ministers met for talks on the long-disputed topic.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council's decision comes after months of wrangling over the European Commission-proposed Annual Solidarity Pool, a key part of the bloc's broader Migration and Asylum Pact aimed at easing the migration burden of hotspot states as Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Poland was among four EU members, alongside Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, that emerged as hardliners on the plan, voicing strong opposition to rules on sharing the migration load that require EU members, among other things, to accept relocated asylum seekers or pay compensation for refusing to do so.
"Poland is exempt from any relocation mechanism and has also been freed from any related costs," Kiewniski said after the meeting. "In this regard, we have achieved everything we wanted."
According to Kierwinski, the gathering saw a heated discussion, with southern EU member states expressing their dissatisfaction with the changes to the rules.
Before the meeting, the minister said it is a "good day" for Poland, adding that ruling his country out of the pact. Earlier, Poland justified its position by the migratory pressure it faces due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the aid it offered to the neighbouring country and the longstanding migration crisis on the Polish-Belarus border.
The agreement was later praised by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who wrote on X on Monday that the waiver that Warsaw was granted was something he had previously pledged to secure.
Under the proposal, EU member states will be required to redistribute at least 30,000 asylum seekers from the four most migration-impacted states annually, with the figures for 2026 standing at 21,000 individuals. Poland was among the member states which had long been urging the Commission to opt them out from the bloc's flagship scheme, previously filing for exclusion from the plan.
Adopted in May 2024, the bulk of the pact's rules will come into full force in mid-2026. (PAP)
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