‘Forcing Migrants on Nations Will Mean the End of the EU’: Polish President

Polish President Andrzej Duda makes a statement in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, July 24, 2017.
AP Photo/Alik Keplicz
Virginia Hale

Brussels’ insistence on ordering European Union (EU) nations to accept third world migrants could lead to the bloc’s break-up, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has warned.

The EU principle of unity, Duda told a press conference Thursday, “must come down to the fact that we work together … we do not try to force other states to act against their own interests and against the interests of their people.”

“Therefore, we don’t agree to being dictated to, with regards to the quota system and forcing migrants to move to Poland, against our people’s will,” he stressed, speaking after talks with Bulgarian president Rumen Radev.

Duda added that Poland and Bulgaria share the “same and unequivocal” position on how Europe should deal with the migrant crisis, stating both countries believe the bloc should protect its borders, and provide aid to refugees close to their homelands.

Unity, equality, and solidarity are “the basic principles of the EU”, said Duda, who hails from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) Party.

“If these principles are broken, then, in my opinion, it will mean the end of the bloc as we know it  — or certainly its decline, which will lead to the disintegration of the Union.”

Solidarity with regards to the migrant crisis means giving mutual support in dealing with the problems, according to Poland’s president, who pointed out that the nation sent guards to Bulgaria to help protect the Union’s external border.

“Both for Bulgaria and ourselves, preventing illegal immigration by maintaining an efficient, tightly guarded EU border, that cannot be easily crossed is one of the most important tasks to be undertaken,” he said.

In 2015, against Central European nations’ wishes, EU interior ministers approved a plan to force member states to welcome a share of third world migrants who arrived on the continent since German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders.

Threatened with sanctions over their refusal to take the share of “refugees” dictated by Brussels, Polish interior minister Mariusz Błaszczak insisted that financial penalties would do less damage to the nation than being made to take in migrants.

Radio Poland has reported that, with a €50 million contribution announced last month, Warsaw is the largest donor so far to the European Investment Bank’s Economic Resilience Initiative, which aids refugees living in nations including Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Syria, Albania, and Serbia.

According to the bank, the initiative “aims at rapidly mobilising additional financing in support of the capacity of economies in the Southern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans regions to absorb and respond to crises and shocks, such as the Syrian refugee crisis, while maintaining strong growth”.

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