Dorzeczy(.)pl: Ambassadors of EU countries agreed on the so-called crisis regulation, which is the final element of the migration pact. Poland and Hungary voted against it.
The agreement was sealed during a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels tasked with completing the work that member states' interior ministers were unable to complete last week when Italy unexpectedly blocked the draft document.
Rome challenged a small part of the regulations focusing on search and rescue services provided by NGO ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy sees this as a "pull factor" for more migrants to European shores.
Germany, whose vote was necessary to obtain the required qualified majority, defended the NGO ships, arguing that saving lives at sea is a legal, humanitarian, and moral obligation. Italian officials have previously criticized the German government for providing state funding to these NGOs.
The centerpiece of the migration pact is a system of "compulsory solidarity", which offers member countries three different options for managing migration flows: accepting a certain number of people who have successfully applied for asylum, paying 20,000 euros for each migrant not admitted, or financing operational support such as infrastructure or staff.
On Thursday, President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made statements to the media regarding the migration pact.
– We do not agree to this dictate, because at the same time we see that it not only does not solve the problems. It is creating an increasingly bigger problem.
