European Commission on Orbán's sentence about migrants and wagons: let us be careful with our vocabulary

"We should always be very careful with the vocabulary we use when we are talking about human beings," the European Commission's senior spokesperson said on Friday about Viktor Orbán's comments made Friday morning about Germany and migrants.

Eric Mamer was interviewed by RTL about the Hungarian prime minister's weekly radio interview which aired on Friday. In it, Viktor Orbán spoke about the EU's asylum reform and said that “they are creating rules which allow Brussels the right to dictate how many migrants it will distribute. It is difficult to see how this will happen. Let's say you have these migrants in Germany (...) And they will round them up and collect them. Will they put them in wagons in Germany? And are they then going to drag them over to us, and unload them here, so we can keep them here?”

The senior spokesman for the EC pointed out that the legislation was still in the pipeline. A common position was indeed adopted by member states last week, which Eric Mamer said was a very important, but interim step. The next step will be a conciliation between the two co-legislators, the Council of Member States and the European Parliament, with the European Commission as a supporting body.

The legislation is not about compulsory relocation, but about compulsory, flexible solidarity, and it is important to distinguish between the two, Anitta Hipper said. The Home Affairs spokeswoman said that the original Commission proposal would oblige Member States to bear a fair share of the asylum burden, but that they could decide on the solidarity instrument they want to use.

As previously reported, as a default, the Council deal would see 30,000 asylum seekers distributed per year, which Member States could either compensate with money or, for example, by providing support staff. The latter would require a request from the country in need and would be used as a basis for negotiating the size of the obligation the contribution would compensate. The agreement, adopted by a large majority of member states, would screen unfounded asylum applications with a stricter, fast-track border procedure and would also relax rules for return.

The final text will have to be agreed by the Council of Member States and the European Parliament and then voted on by both institutions. This is expected to happen by next February.