Brussels plans on refugee relocation

Pro-government commentators sharply criticise the draft resolution prepared by the European Commission that would impose on member countries asylum seekers whose demands would be accepted by international experts.

In Magyar Idők, Tamás Jakubász writes that EU relocation plans would impose a yearly burden of several hundred billion forints on Hungary and suggests that this would ‘probably compel the government’ to withdraw the recently introduced housing subsidies for young couples as well as the substantial wage increase promised to public servants.

In the same pro-government daily, Anna Kulcsár accuses the leaders of the European Commission, especially President Jean-Claude Juncker of incompetence, as they still insist on relocation instead of halting a process of mass immigration which threatens European security. Under the Commission proposals, countries which refuse to comply would be heavily fined. Under these conditions, Kulcsár suggests, the referendum on compulsory migrant quotas scheduled for October 2^nd is of particular importance.

In Népszabadság, Miklós Hargitai refrains from taking sides in the debate between Hungary and Germany on whose migration policy has been the right one. The Hungarian government believes that by opposing the influx of migrants it has helped save the European model and European way of life, while Chancellor Merkel said her country has followed European values ‘unlike Hungary’. ‘Fortunately, it is not for us to decide which stance is the right one’, Hargitai writes. However, he rejects as disingenuous the blame apportioned by the government side to left-wing MEPs for the resolution adopted in the European Parliament on imposing compensation payments on countries which refuse to take their share of refugees. The resolution was worded by Polish People’s Party MEPs, the left-wing commentator writes.

Tags: European Union, Juncker, migration