EU to sue Poland over migration: report

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, in June launched procedures against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic over “non-compliance with their obligations” on the relocation of migrants.

In September 2015, EU leaders agreed that each country would accept a number of migrants over two years to alleviate the pressure on Greece and Italy, which have seen waves of migrants arriving from the Middle East and Africa.

EU leaders agreed to relocate a total of about 160,000 migrants of more than two million people who arrived in Europe since 2015.

Poland’s previous government led by the Civic Platform party agreed to take in over 6,000 people.

But after coming to power in October 2015, Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government staunchly opposed the arrangement.

Humanitarian aid

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło has previously said that Poland was supporting those in need by increasing humanitarian aid to the victims of the war in Syria and by working with aid organisations to rebuild hospitals.

Szydło has said that helping in this way is not only cheaper but more effective, whereas EU migration policy was not putting a stop to additional waves of migrants to Europe.

Szydło also noted that migrants were not interested in staying in Poland but wanted to head for richer countries.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union can impose high fines on Poland if Brussels asks for them in a further lawsuit. The procedure could take several years, Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

(pk/gs)