The European Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic over their reluctance to accept migrants.
The three nations could face hefty fines if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sides with the European Union. The lawsuit stems from a 2015 scheme to relocate 160,000 migrants proportionally across member states.
Hungary and Poland have refused to take a single migrant while the Czech Republic has accepted 12. The European Union demands that the countries accept a combined 8,000 as part of the scheme.
“The European Commission has today decided to refer the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation,” the Commission said in a statement. “This is why the Commission has decided to move to the next stage of the infringement procedure and refer the three member states to the Court of Justice of the EU.”
The three countries argue that the scheme interferes with their national sovereignty. Poland’s Interior Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said the European Union’s migration policies directly increases the terror threat across the continent.
“Experience shows that the [migrant] relocation system has not worked,” Błaszczak said in response to the lawsuit, according to Radio Poland. “It is a system that poses a threat. It degrades states, entire cities, city districts because the communities that are flowing in to Europe not only do not integrate with Europeans, but … form a hinterland for Islamic terrorists.”
The relocation scheme has been largely unsuccessful so far. Just 32,000 out of 160,000 migrants have been resettled so far.
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