EU Says Patriotic Nations Must ‘Pay the Price’ for Refusing Migrants, Backs Macron’s Call for Sanctions

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JACQUES WITT/AFP/Getty Images
Virginia Hale

The European Commission has backed Emmanuel Macron’s call for sanctions on EU nations refusing to resettle third world migrants, asserting that countries must be made to “pay the price” for membership of the bloc.

Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that central and eastern European nations “have a vital need of Europe”, asserting it is “not legitimate that nations which refuse to show solidarity would continue receiving a similar proportion of EU funding”.

“Europe is not well,” lamented the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs on Monday. “Britain is leaving us, we suffered an economic crisis which continues to do damage, we are seeing governments with parties on the extreme right.

“The rise of nationalism is a challenge for Europe,” he told French broadcaster BFMTV, adding: “We must reinvent [the EU] and refresh the notion of solidarity. We need to reinvent Europe, reinvent the notion of solidarity.”

Moscovici’s comments echoed those made by the French President on Saturday, when he told a press conference in Paris: “You can’t have countries that massively benefit from the solidarity of the European Union and that massively voice their national selfishness when it comes to migrant issues.”

“I am in favour of sanctions being imposed in the event of no cooperation,” he added, speaking on the eve of a mini-summit on immigration which saw 16 EU leaders meet to discuss illegal immigration and a common asylum policy.”

At the meeting, which paved the way for a full EU summit on Thursday and Friday, a number of European leaders including the prime ministers of Belgium, Denmark, and Luxembourg said they back the idea of setting up centres outside Europe at which asylum seekers could be “pre-screened” and have their applications processed.

According to Middle East Memo, France and Germany indicated they would rather see “Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, to receive illegal immigrants on their territory before a decision is made on their cases”.

Governments of the Viségrad nations, which boycotted Sunday’s meeting, have said that spreading migrants around the bloc is unpopular with Europeans, and provides no solution to the illegal immigration crisis because it continues to incentivise travel to the continent.

But Eurocrats and globalist leaders including Macron — who is reportedly meeting mass migration-promoting Pope Francis on Tuesday to discuss the issue — and German Chancellor Angela Merkel insist that closing the borders would be impossible, and an affront to so-called EU values.

Speaking on Thursday, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos blasted the idea of pre-screening asylum seekers at camps situated outside the bloc as “absolutely out of the question”.

“I am against the creation of a Guantanamo for migrants. It goes against European values and we are not discussing the issue,” he said, insisting that Europe’s “main goal is to save lives …  [and] the resettlement of refugees in Europe”.

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