Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday (10 April) said his government would “protect” Poland against the European Union migrant relocation scheme as the bloc adopted a major overhaul of its asylum rules.

The reforms, designed to harden border procedures and force the 27 member states to share responsibility for asylum-seekers, passed through the EU parliament on Wednesday.

EU’s historic migration pact passes amidst divisions and far-right fears

Despite a nerve-wreaking buildup leading up to the vote on Wednesday (10 April) afternoon, and the final agreement to no one’s liking, the EU’s asylum and migration pact ultimately passed with a thin majority on certain parts of the package.

The reform would require EU countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers from “frontline” states such as Italy and Greece.

Alternatively, they could provide money or other resources to the under-pressure nations.

“We will protect Poland against the relocation mechanism,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw just as the contentious reform was adopted in Brussels.

Poland’s right-wing PiS party previously in power was a fierce critic of the reforms, and the new governing alliance led by Tusk, despite its largely pro-EU views, has maintained that stance.

“I have certain possibilities to build alliances and the mechanism of relocation or paying for not taking in (migrants)… will certainly not apply to Poland,” said Tusk, a former European Council chief.

Under current EU rules, the arrival country bears responsibility for hosting and vetting asylum-seekers, and returning those deemed inadmissible, a system that has put southern states under pressure.

The new pact’s measures are to come into force in 2026, after the European Commission sets out in how it would be implemented.

The EU’s reform of its asylum and migration rules is “another nail in the coffin” of the bloc, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Wednesday.

“The MigrationPact is another nail in the coffin of the European Union. Unity is dead, secure borders are no more. Hungary will never give in to the mass migration frenzy! We need a change in Brussels in order to StopMigration!” Orbán said in a post on X.

The so-called “migration pact” will now be passed on to member states in the Council, who are scheduled to vote on 29 April via qualified majority. It will enter into force in 2026.

Read more with Euractiv

Polish far-right begins election campaign with Polexit demand

Polish far-right leaders are launching their European election campaign by setting up parties that want Poland to leave the European Union, one of which was founded by former MEP Stanisław Żółtek.