Meloni’s migration mediation can’t save EU summit
talks
Hungary and Poland’s protest over a deal to relocate
migrants left EU leaders deadlocked and some fretting about what it might
presage.
BY SUZANNE
LYNCH, JACOPO BARIGAZZI, GREGORIO SORGI AND CORY BENNETT
JUNE 30,
2023 6:48 PM CET
In the end,
they failed. Giorgia Meloni couldn’t pull it off this time.
EU leaders
on Friday walked away from their summit in Brussels without releasing a joint
statement on migration. Hungary and Poland, who had launched an 11th-hour
attack on the already-agreed position on migration, would not relent in their
opposition.
In a sign
of the times, Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni tried to strike a deal with the two
leaders on the sidelines of the summit. But it was not enough to unblock the
impasse.
“I am never
disappointed by those who defend their national interests,” Meloni said as she
left, papering over a potential rift with her right-wing allies.
The dispute
was mostly symbolic. The end–of-summit text itself would have had almost no
real impact on what was truly angering Hungary and Poland: A fresh deal to
overhaul how Europe welcomes and relocates migrants.
But the
failure of the European Council to finalize a joint statement sent a strong
signal about the rising emotional register of migration talks these days. If
even a relatively superficial text left leaders gnashing their teeth for hours,
imagine what may lie ahead as the EU works to finalize and implement its new
policies.
European
Council President Charles Michel, who chose to issue a solo migration statement
in lieu of a joint one to unblock the standstill, tried to put a positive spin
on things. There were 25 countries backing the EU’s approach to migration, he
emphasized.
“Let’s keep
a level head, let’s keep calm here,” Michel said. “There is a great deal of
convergence that was not there a few years ago when there was real tension.”
Not
everyone shared his equanimity.
“I’m
really, really not happy,” Slovak Prime Minister Ľudovít Ódor told POLITICO,
fretting Hungary and Poland’s obstruction may set a precedent for other
countries wanting to similarly stage protests at EU summits.
“That is
why we need now to talk to them in order to find out how can we proceed
forward,” he added.
Meloni’s
moment
A few years
ago it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel huddling with her counterparts on
the EU summit sidelines to try and find a deal. On Friday, Meloni stepped into
the role — a telling sign of the right-wing leader’s growing importance in a
European landscape moving rightward.
After
leaders reconvened on Friday morning, Meloni split off from the group to try
and persuade Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to get
back to the table and sign up to the relatively innocuous language on migration
Michel had presented.
Though the
Italian leader was essential to pushing through this month’s migration deal —
which will make the asylum process stricter but also involve some migrant
relocation within Europe — she failed to land a deal here.
Despite
sharing ideological common ground — Hungary, Poland and Italy are all part of a
strengthening right-wing bloc in European politics, and Warsaw and Rome are
both members of a right-to-far-right political group — Meloni was unable to
persuade her counterparts.
Poland was
asking for two things. One was language committing the EU to make migration
policy decisions unanimously (instead of the current “qualified majority” standard).
And the second was language urging the EU to offer extra cash to manage the
flow of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Hungary
gladly hopped on board, pushing the protest in an even more hard-line
direction.
The three
prime ministers returned empty-handed, however, raising questions about
Meloni’s standing with her putative political allies. EU leaders were forced to
drop the text on migration that had been expected to be in the end-of-summit
communiqué.
The Italian
leader downplayed the outcome.
“I completely
understand their reasons,” she said.
Meloni
argued that the two countries did not raise objections on her top priority, the
“external dimension” of migration — essentially meaning the EU’s work with
outside countries to reduce migrant flows.
“The only
way to manage the situation together is the external dimension,” she said.
Instead,
she noted, Poland and Hungary opposed the EU’s attempts to relocate some
migrants within the EU. The new policy would offer countries a choice: either
take in a set number of migrants or pay €20,000 for each person you do not
accept.
However,
the sections that were spiked in the leaders’ statement didn’t mention internal
relocation. They only included calls to focus on the external dimension of
migration in line with Meloni’s rhetoric.
Many
diplomats and leaders stressed the recent migration deal was achieved in line
with EU law, which only requires a “qualified majority” for such decisions. The
two countries’ pleas for unanimity were widely seen as a ploy to stall the
establishment of a system to redistribute migrants.
Preaching
positivity
Despite the
stand-off, many leaders preached calm.
That’s part
of EU decision-making, German Chancellor Olaf shrugged before departing.
The more
vital migration work, he argued, is getting the recent migration deal across
the finish line. While EU countries have endorsed the deal, negotiators still
have to get the pact through the European Parliament.
“The fact
that we have now, after so many attempts, come so far [on a migration
agreement] for the first time should be a reason for us not to stop trying to
finalize this” before next year’s EU elections, Scholz said.
The EU’s
repeated failures to create Continent-wide rules on processing and sharing
migrants has been a big “mistake” for Europe over the past 10 to 20 years.
It was a
sentiment shared around the table.
Swedish
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose government held the EU’s rotating
presidency that oversaw the recent migration negotiations, touted the deal as
“absolutely necessary” — even if there are objections.
The EU, he
said, has achieved “what many had thought was almost impossible.”
Lili Bayer
and Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.
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