EP head Tajani urges EU eastern members to cooperate in migrant distribution

The head of the European Parliament has asked former communist members of the European Union to show solidarity when it comes to the relocation of asylum seekers.

In his interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on Wednesday, Antonio Tajani said the migration crisis was “not a problem for any single member alone” and could be tackled only as part of a cooperative effort.

Answering a question concerning the recent European court ruling on the redistribution of migrants, Tajani said that

the EP was ready to take Hungary to court “for infringing on its [EU] obligations”.

Tajani insisted that “every former communist EU member must know that solidarity is not a one-way street”. The EU has helped those countries remove the remnants of their communist past and “they still receive a lot of money” from EU structural funds.

“Now is the time for them to show solidarity,” Tajani said.

Asked if Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, could be convinced, Tajani said that efforts should continue, “which means that we must talk, talk, talk”. The European People’s Party, to which both politicians belong, will have “intensive discussions on these subjects with Orbán, too,” Tajani added.

As we wrote yesterday, based on statements made in the past few days, it appears that the court decision related to Hungary’s lawsuit challenging the European Commission on the legality of the scheme to relocate asylum seekers according to a mandatory quota system is the first step in a longer-term programme to step up migrant resettlements, a cabinet official said.

Photo: facebook.com/antonio.tajani

Source: MTI