Top EU court’s adviser dismisses Slovakia, Hungary refugee challenge
The top EU court’s adviser said on Wednesday that a case brought by Slovakia and Hungary challenging the obligatory relocation of asylum seekers across the bloc should be dismissed.
UPDATE: Hungary’s government said on Wednesday that a statement by an adviser to the top European Union court dismissing a Hungarian and Slovak challenge to the bloc’s migrant quotas was a political statement which is short on legal arguments.
“The main elements of the statement are political, which are practically used to disguise the fact that there are no legal arguments in it,” Pal Volner, state secretary of the Justice Ministry was cited as saying by the state news agency MTI.
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The two eastern EU states — backed by neighbour Poland — had argued that the EU’s 2015 scheme to have each member state host a certain number of refugees was unlawful. The programme was designed to help ease pressure on asylum systems in Greece and Italy after mass arrivals across the Mediterranean.
But the court’s Advocate General Yves Bot rejected most of the procedural arguments presented by Bratislava and Budapest and said the resettlement scheme was appropriate.
“The contested decision automatically helps to relieve the considerable pressure on the asylum systems of Italy and Greece following the migration crisis in the summer of 2015 and… is thus appropriate for attaining the objective which it pursues,” he said.
The nationalist-minded, eurosceptic governments in Warsaw and Budapest have refused to take in a single asylum-seeker under the EU scheme. Slovakia and the Czech Republic have also stalled, citing security concerns after a raft of Islamist attacks in the EU in recent years.
Their reluctance to help the two southern frontline states, as well as wealthier EU countries such as Germany, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants, have precipitated bitter disputes in the bloc and weakened its unity.
A final ECJ ruling is expected after the summer break. The Court does not have to but generally does follow the advisory opinion of the Advocate General.
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