EURACTIV SPECIAL 27. 3. – 31. 3. 2017 VISEGRAD AND FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION source Giannis Papanikos/ Shutterstock Visegrád and migration: VISEGRÁD AND MIGRATION: Few prospects for a change in position 1 FEW PROSPECTS FOR A CHANGE IN POSITION Visegrád on Trump: With Slovakia handing over the EU “player” with substantial convergence in Anxious but optimistic 3 presidency to Malta and agreement the debate. on a new EU asylum system out of si- Apart from unanimous support for the ght, the Visegrád Group remains in “flexible”, later “effective solidarity”, it ad- Future EU: opposed to compulsory refugee relo- Does Visegrád have a plan? 6 vocates cooperation with third countries cation. via a Migration Compacts, copying agree- Authors: Aneta Zachová, Edit Zgut, Krzysztof ment with Turkey and protection of EU The V4 will never agree on Russia 8 Kokoszczynski and Zuzana Gabrizova external borders, where they are ready to “The effective application of the principles increase commitments. of responsibility and solidarity remains a As a matter of shared priority, the Viseg- V4 energy security: shared objective,” read the conclusions of rád Group calls for a return to the full ap- The land of nuclear and coal 11 the December European Council on the plication of the Schengen deal. internal aspects of migration. In this cooperative article, we take a clos- The Slovak Presidency has framed this er look at where the debate and situation wording as a “success”, claiming it means stands in every respective country of the that the “effective solidarity” concept Visegrád Group. that would allow countries to choose how they want to contribute to common SLOVAKIA: THE PRESIDENCY EFFECT efforts in the migration crisis thus avoid At the beginning of 2016, Slovak Prime actually taking in refugees, and it has Minister Robert Fico infamously stated gained overall support. that he wants to “prevent a creation of a The situation is more complex, however. coherent Muslim community in the coun- Slovakia has handed over the large migra- try”. It was at the height of the election tion dossier to the Maltese Presidency in campaign, where the migration crisis took the Council largely untouched. National centre stage in a country with virtually no positions differ even among the Western migrants and refugees. Polls between countries. spring and autumn 2015 showed a sharp With the support of: rise in people considering migration one Looming elections in the Netherlands, of the most important issues the country France and Germany will hardly make and the EU is facing. finding a compromise easier this year. The Visegrád Group (V4) – Slovakia, Since the emergence of the independent Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary – state in 1993, and after it joined the EU has emerged in the debate as a regional (Continued on next page) 2 VISEGRAD AND FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION | 27. 3. – 31. 3. 2017 in 2004, Slovakia adopted and maintained At the end of 2015, Slovakia had voluntarily lum in the Czech Republic. Syrians and Af- very strict and dissuasive migration and resettled 149 Iraqi Christians, who obtained ghans represent a minimum of them. Accord- asylum policies, opposing any proposal for asylum on humanitarian grounds. “To this ing to Zuzana Schreiberová from non-profit further harmonisation and burden sharing day only 89 stayed. The rest have returned organisation Multicultural Centre Prague it is initiatives at EU level. to Iraq citing homesickness,” says Petra Ach- because of the bad conditions in detention Despite its history as a multiethnic environ- bergerová, director of the migration and in- facilities where migrants are placed. ment and having considerable Hungarian tegration department at the Migration office. “The vast majority of them choose to contin- and Roma minorities, the country adheres For the time being, Slovakia has pledged to ue to other countries, mainly to Germany,” to a platform of “cultural homogeneity”, sup- take in 100 refugees from Greece on a vol- explained Schreiberová. The Czech Republic ported by a political consensus on the matter. untary basis and is offering 500 scholarships accepts a limited number of refugees. Every After the rise of migration as a central EU is- to Syrian teenagers. It also helped Austria,by third applicant for asylum is successful. temporarily housing more than 1000 refu- sue, it found a way towards domestic polit- HUNGARY: HOTSPOTS OUTSIDE gees applying for asylum in Austria. ical discourse. The government dominated SCHENGEN by centre-left party SMER-SD has strongly NGOs and volunteers showed a high level of The Hungarian Fidesz-KDNP government framed the problem in the narrative of se- engagement during the height of the refu- has overcome a period of falling popularity curity issue and problem of cultural incom- gee crisis, helping and organising help for by exploiting the refugee crisis. patibility of largely Muslim migrants. This refugees on their way via the Balkan route. was strengthened in the wake of the gen- Hungary was the first to erect a fence to eral elections. Robert Fico has won his third CZECH REPUBLIC: COMMITMENT TO keep migrants away from the country’s mandate, although not without loss of abso- BORDERS borders and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán re- lute control. Migration has also become one of the dom- jected the quota mechanism from the very beginning, advocating the protection of the Despite being clearly pro-European, the inant political topics of the past two years. EU’s external borders instead. government did not shy away from speak- Public debate on migration radicalised and a ing of “EU dictates” once the compulsory new anti-immigration movement has been To many, the Fidesz-KDNP government’s relocation scheme was on the table. It filed established, which includes the Party of Di- policies induced xenophobic attitudes a lawsuit against the Council decision on a rect Democracy, the sixth most successful in society by its constant anti-immigrant temporary relocation scheme, seconded by party in the regional elections in 2016. campaigns and the criminalisation of asy- Hungary. Despite that, the real policy maintains the lum-seekers. The rhetoric was toned down during the same direction, as it was before the start of For example, Orbán claimed that all ter- Slovak Presidency. The protection of the the crisis, says Miroslav Mareš, a professor of rorists are migrants. The question is only EU’s external borders remained a central political science at Masaryk University. Gov- when they arrived in Europe. According to speaking point. “This level of porousness ernment and activist activities have intensi- research Institute Tárki, xenophobia reached of the borders is potentially deadly for the fied, such as Czech police deployments to an all-time high in Hungary last year (58%). prestige of the EU, its administrative, politi- Greece, and NGOs helping refugees on their The referendum in October 2016 was invalid cal and social absorption capacity,” Ambas- journey through Europe. but 98% of the 3.3 million people casting a sador-at-Large for Migration Igor Slobod- According to the Czech Interior Ministry, the vote were against refugee relocation quo- ník said to EURACTIV.sk. current European Asylum System does not tas. The Slovak proposal for effective solidarity work well. The ministry is also critical of the “The Hungarian government’s response to has clearly failed to get every member state proposed revision. the refugee crisis was motivated by domes- on board. Nevertheless, diplomats say it “Even if we manage to enforce the proposed tic political goals, mainly its desire to cement managed to calm the debate. system, it will not lead to a significant reduc- its own power through artificially sustaining “You will never hear me praise this concept tion in the influx of migrants,” said ministry an air of anxiety,” said former Foreign Minis- as ideal. The name ‘flexible’ solidarity is un- spokeswoman Hana Malá. The revision of the ter Géza Jeszenszky, who believes it was im- fortunate, but the system, based on one Dublin Regulation containing redistribution possible to refer to the invalid referendum as manifestation of solidarity, is unsustainable,” of migrants is the most problematic part. a success in Brussels. the government plenipotentiary of the Slo- The Ministry of Interior claims that redistri- In contrast, Sándor Gallai, director of research vak EU Council Presidency Ivan Korčok said. bution should not be obligatory. The Czech at the Institute of Migration Research, says He argues there can be no change in the Republic supports the Slovak concept of “ef- that the government’s measures are found- Dublin rule, as it would constitute a pull fac- fective solidarity”, but it would offer greater ed on value-based political motivations. tor. “This is not how Schengen can survive,” involvement in the activities of the Europe- “The Orbán government is supporting the he added. an Asylum Agency and the European Board idea of an ethnically homogenous society Far-reaching harmonisation of asylum pro- and Coastal Guards instead of accepting re- that matches the opinion of Hungarians; cedures as envisaged in the draft proposals distributed refugees. it wants to solve demographic problems on the European Commission seem to be a NGO positions differ from those of the through family policy instead of immigra- no-go for Slovakia as well. Czech government. One example is an alter- tion,” said Gallai. Any reform of the Common Asylum System native concept by Martin Rozumek from the The Hungarian government sees the solu- must not bypass it, claims Zuzan Števulová Organization for Aid to Refugees and Zuza- tion for the migration crisis in the establish- of the NGO League for Human Rights. “Also, na Števulová from the League for Human ment of hotspots outside of the Schengen if we really want to build a common asylum Rights in Bratislava.