EU ponders a linkage between structural funds and asylum-seekers

As Chancellor Merkel proposes that EU structural funds should be contingent on accepting the redistribution of asylum-seekers, conservative commentators accuse her, as well as the EU, of blackmail.

In Figyelő, Dániel Deák accuses the EU and Chancellor Merkel of trying to blackmail Hungary and other states that do not want to take in migrants. The conservative analyst suspects that Chancellor Merkel’s suggestion that EU structural fund payments should be made conditional on participation in EU-wide refugee redistribution are targeted at the Visegrád countries including Hungary. Deák notes that in addition to Chancellor Merkel’s proposal, other plans on mandatory redistribution and the cancelation of the Dublin rules have also been leaked. If these proposals are implemented, Hungary would need to accept and integrate more than 10,000 people, Deák writes.

In the Mozgástér blog, Tamás Lánczi dismisses as absurd the plan to link structural fund eligibility to the redistribution of asylum-seekers. The pro-government analyst recalls that pro-migration politics have resulted in a heavy loss of votes for Angela Merkel. The less developed parts of the EU would face even bigger social challenges if they were to offer refuge to thousands of immigrants, Lánczi continues. All in all, the redistribution of migrants only serves one aim: to redistribute in the EU the problems related to migration that Chancellor Merkel could not resolve after promising asylum for all Syrians, Lánczi concludes.

Tags: EU, EU funds, Merkel, migrant quotas, migration