EU threatens to sue member states for not accepting their quota of refugees

Refugees crossing the sea arrive disproportionately
across Southern Europe Getty
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News › UK › UK Politics
Jon Stone Brussels | @joncstone |
Wednesday 6 September 2017 12:30 BST |
EU threatens to sue
member states for not
accepting their quota of
refugees
Countries could face heavy fines from the
European Court of Justice
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Indy Politics
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More about: | refugee crisis | Immigration |
Hungary | Poland | European Court Of Justice |
Dimitris Avramopoulos
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The European Commission has threatened to take
EU member states who do not accept the bloc’s
asylum seeker quotas to court.
The quotas’ legality was confirmed on Wednesday
morning, when judges at the European Court of
Justice threw out a joint legal challenge against
them by Hungary and Slovakia.
At a press conference in Brussels after the ruling,
Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Migration
Commissioner, told reporters that states that
continued to refuse compliance with the plan “in
the coming weeks” would be referred to the ECJ.
“It is time to be united and show full solidarity. The
door remains, it is still open, and we should
convince all member states to fulfil their
commitments,” he said.
“But we should be clear that member states have
to show solidarity now because it is now that some
member states need help.
“If the member states do not change their
approach in the coming weeks we should then
consider to take the last step in the infringement
procedure: to refer Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
Republic to the European Court of Justice.”
Mr Avramopoulos, a Greek politician from the New
Democracy party, added that “solidarity cannot be
à la carte” and called on EU countries dragging their
feet on the policy to come to their neighbours’ aid.
Since 2014, around 1.7 million people have
travelled to the EU with the intention of settling
there, with many fleeing wars or strife in the
Middle East and Africa.

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