WARSAW, Poland – Poland will not take in refugees under a hotly contested EU program to distribute them among member states because of the Paris attacks, the country's incoming European affairs minister said on Saturday, November 14.
"The European Council's decisions, which we criticized, on the relocation of refugees and immigrants to all EU countries are part of European law," Konrad Szymanski wrote on right-leaning website wPolityce.pl.
But "after the tragic events of Paris we do not see the political possibility of respecting them," he said.
Szymanski is to take the European affairs portfolio in conservative Prime Minister-designate Beata Szydlo new government.
Her eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party won the October 25 election on a platform that included refusing migrants entry into Poland.
Under the EU relocation plan, 160,000 refugees registered in frontline states Greece and Italy are to be relocated around the 28-member bloc. Many eastern European countries have staunchly resisted taking a share of the burden. – Rappler.com