Granada (Spain) (AFP) – A furious row over planned changes to Europe’s migration rules overshadowed an EU summit Friday, although supporters of the reform vowed opposition from Poland and Hungary would not derail it.
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The Polish and Hungarian leaders did prevent the leaders from including migration in a joint statement of the summit’s conclusions, forcing the meeting to end on a sour note of division.
But European Council president Charles Michel issued a separate statement about asylum policy and border protection in his own name, and the French and German leaders said the legislative process would continue as planned.
“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 courted outrage by comparing the EU’s “forcing through” of migration legislation — which was approved by a majority of member states — to Hungary being “legally raped”.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that although their opposition had blocked any mention of migration in the final declaration, it would have no effect on the proposed bill, which was approved in outline by member states on Wednesday.
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