Once again, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, appears to be reaching out to the Visegrad group of countries (Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary) on the question of the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers. During the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) plenary session on Thursday 22 September, he stated that "if certain countries are unable" to take asylum seekers in, then it would be necessary "for them to participate more than others in the protection of external borders".
During his state of the Union address on 14 September, Juncker had said that solidarity could not be imposed. The Commission was again questioned on these words on Thursday and reiterated that Juncker's words should not be seen as the first sign of an end to the relocation plans, and that the decisions (binding in this case) were not optional. A spokesperson for the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, said that the decisions remain, "quite the contrary, obligatory". He insisted that measures such as building a wall, as Hungary has done, in an attempt to put a brake on migratory flows, cannot "replace other Community measures", and he added he thought that this was "pretty evident".
Juncker’s words come on top of those of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who appeared to acknowledge in Bratislava on 16 September that errors had been made during the drawing up of compulsory quotas, mentioning the resistance that the decision had roused, despite it being taken in 2015 by a qualified majority vote of the interior ministers. She also judged it positive that the Visegrad group had put forward proposals on migration policy, and referred to their "flexible solidarity" concept.
During an informal ministerial meeting in Bratislava on 7 July, the Slovak minister for the interior, Robert Kalinak, had announced that extensive discussions would take place under the Slovak Presidency of the Council on the concept of "flexibility in solidarity". He said that there was not just one way ahead possible and mentioned his wish to reach a compromise solution on the reform of the Dublin Regulation, which sets out EU asylum rules. On Thursday, Juncker's spokesperson, Natasha Bertaud, pointed out that he had encouraged this exercise on 14 September, calling on the Slovak Presidency to work on solutions that could be acceptable to all the different member states.
Nonetheless, the fact that certain member states are refusing to give much help to Italy or Greece is still considered as "unacceptable” in Juncker's eyes. This is what he told the EESC: "I believe the sharing out of refugees has to be done in solidarity. There are countries that are doing this and there are countries that don't like doing it", while saying they are "catholic countries" and that there is "no place for Muslims. I find this reasoning unacceptable [because] there are first people, and then religions”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Jan Kordys)