From mandatory to voluntary. Impact of V4 on the EU relocation scheme

ABSTRACT

In response to the ‘migration crisis’ of 2015–17, the European Commission proposed a scheme of relocating refugees across European Union states. It was accepted by a majority of countries, but met with an intransigent opposition from Central Europe, particularly the Visegrad Group (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), which caused a political crisis in the EU. This paper analyses the positions of the V4 regarding refugee relocation and their influence on the EU's policy, based on a historical analysis of EU and national documents and statements of key politicians. We conclude that, although problems with the implementation of the relocation scheme and terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels were significant, the opposition of the V4 was one of the most important factors which led to the abandonment of relocation as an instrument in dealing with refugees. Our conclusions were confirmed in interviews with officials involved in negotiations on the relocation scheme and media representatives in Brussels and other European capitals.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee relocation
• Visegrad Group
• migration crisis
• asylum
• European Union
• European Commission

Additional information

Funding

The paper was prepared within the project “IMINTEG – In search for models of relations between immigration and integration policies”, funded by the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) under the Sonata BIS program, project number 2014/14/E/HS5/00397.