EU manipulations
Mirosław Piotrowski
‘In Europe there are sneaky manipulations’ – a Hungarian Foreign minister announced. His statement concerned the EU mechanizm of relocation of refugees. He noted that throughout two years in the European Union it was possible to relocate nearly one fourth of the accepted number of 160 thousand refugees. No EU country fulfilled obligations. However, the Visegrad group got under pressure, especially Hungary and Poland, which generally refused to participate in this program. And from the point of view of Brussels, it looks like a rebellion, which should be stifled in the very beginning. The Justice Tribunal of the European Union in Luxemburg came with help, by dismissing a complaint of Hungary and Slovakia supported by Poland, saying that the accepted procedure of the relocation had been compatible with the EU law.
Despite that Hungary and Poland still state that accepting thousands of immigrants called refugees is a serious danger for citizens and their protection is the responsibility of the governments of the EU countries. They are not going to join the mentioned program, especially that there is a lot of probability of spreading it into further hundreds of thousands and even millions of people. In such situations the Union envisages fines. Various amounts are suggested. German media inform that Hungary would have to pay a fine of 325 million euro. Slovakia by a hundred million less, and Poland even one and a half of milliard euro for a refusal to let in 20 thousand refugees. What is peculiar, the fine was also calculated for Germany which would have to pay the most, as even five milliard euro of fine, because it is delaying its permission for 20 thousand refugees to arrive there. But it has got a good will, wants to…so, this is a completely different story. The authorities in Berlin know very well, that compulsory relocation of refugees to all EU countries will hardly be effective as life shows that most of them want to arrive in Germany because of profitable social benefits.
So, it is necessary to continue manipulation. There has already appeared a project of paying equal social benefits to refugees in all EU countries. But it will be possible after the election in Germany. Before this election the Hungarian government made a request to the European Commission to return a half of 883 million euro of the cost for building a fence on the border which is also the border of the European Union. In the Polish Seym there appeared an expertise confirming a possibility of demanding damages by our country from Germany for the looses connected with the Second World War. In this context the amount would consume all amounts given above, and still a lot would remain. The issues began to be serious because, according to the mentioned chief of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, an attempt had been taken to divide countries of the Visegrad group.
For this purpose, I think, the EU commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska came from Brussels to Cracow. The words which she said in Poland were immediately re-edited by the German press and the French Press Agency. For she said that ‘Brexit was a shock for everybody but now – and I take complete responsibility for these words – I do not mean Poland here, but the countries such as Poland – are presented as a bigger danger for the unity of the EU than Brexit’. So, what will be with our Poland? Does Mrs. Commissioner mean Poland or not? I admit that the author of these words reminds of my manipulating customer in a butcher’s from the communist times in Poland, who used to say to a shop assistant: ‘Can I have a kilo of bones for a dog, but not as salty as they were yesterday’. What cunning behaviour, isn’t it? Really the European one.
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„Niedziela” 39/2017