The head of the German foreign Ministry: EU should regulate migration without controversy because of quotas
PRAGUE, 24 June. /TASS/. The EU needs to focus on addressing the question of how most effectively to reduce the influx of illegal refugees, not to argue for immigration quotas.
On Saturday said in Prague by Minister of foreign Affairs of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, visited a working visit to the Czech Republic.
“We are not talking about which one of the quota and for what we fight and what we will do in future decades for a significant reduction of refugees, he said. — While we in Europe are fighting about how much we would accept the refugees, in Africa the number of people (seeking to enter the EU) because they are in catastrophic circumstances.”
However, Gabrielle understood the position of the Czech Republic and other countries of the “Visegrad group” (which includes also Slovakia, Poland and Hungary), who reject the compulsory mechanisms for the distribution of refugees and require to take into account its national interests in the migration policy of the European Union.
The Minister of foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Lubomir Zaoralek, in turn, stressed the country’s interest to continue active cooperation with partner States in the EU and the governing bodies of the organization for the modernization of migration policy of the European Union. Prague, while not intend to review its negative stance on the forced distribution quotas.
“We have distinguishable positions (quota), but valuable because we are ready to talk about this issue (illegal migration). We understand that it must be solved simultaneously. On certain points our views coincide”, — said the Minister of foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
The EU in the fall of 2015 decided on resettlement in its territory of 160 thousand of which was at that time in Greece and Italy refugees from Africa. The quota was distributed in proportion to the population of other countries of the European Union and a number of other factors. Poland pledged then to take 7 thousand, Czech Republic — 1.6 thousand, Hungary — 1.3 thousand, and Slovakia — 900 migrants.