Failing to tackle immigration isn’t only a problem for Rishi Sunak. The European Union is also struggling to deal with the issue. Now, Brussels has devised a plan for dividing up among its member states the would-be migrants at the EU’s doors. But Poland and Hungary are not happy.
The EU used qualified majority voting, which is intended to allow a sufficient number of its larger countries to override a small number of holdouts, to push the idea through. Essentially each member state will be given a quota and could then be charged €20,000 (£17,000) per head for falling short. This is legally fairly watertight, since, under EU law, immigration is generally a matter for majority voting. Added to this, if push comes to shove, the European Court might well support the Brussels’ view, especially where that calls for the centralisation of powers. But politically it could well create an enormous Euro-headache, as events in Poland made clear yesterday.
The proposal for a Polish referendum puts the EU embarrassingly on the spot
Poland and Hungary are the two holdout states whose objections were swept aside.
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