Visegrad Group will not agree to new EU refugee rules: Polish PM

Szydło was speaking after high-level talks in Warsaw between Polish and Czech government ministers, including Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

"The position of the Visegrad Group is unchanged” on the immigration crisis buffeting Europe, Szydło said.

“We want to solve this problem, we want to be the creators of a positive policy in solving the migration crisis in Europe, but we say very clearly that we will not agree to a change in the rules on relocation.

“I want to thank Prime Minister Sobotka that he spoke about this very clearly and plainly.”

Faced with an influx of migrants fleeing the war-torn Middle East and North Africa, and with the EU's Schengen system of passport-free travel under threat, the European Commission on Wednesday proposed changes to the EU’s asylum rules.

The reforms would see asylum seekers automatically redistributed between EU member states, according to Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Commissioner for Migration.

Sobotka said on Friday he believes the EU does not need to implement a permanent system “of relocating refugees on the basis of quotas.”

After coming to power in October, the Law and Justice (PiS) party said Poland would accept refugees - albeit under certain conditions - over the next two years, in line with a pledge by the previous government.

But PiS had been hinting it was unhappy at the agreement by the former government led by the Civic Platform to accept 7,000 migrants as part of an EU-wide programme to resettle some 150,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who are in camps in Italy and Greece.

Following terrorist attacks in Brussels, Prime Minister Szydło said last month that Poland would not be able to take in asylum seekers from the EU for now.

But several days later, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Poland would closely examine the applications of refugees interested in staying in Poland. (pk)

Source: PAP