Did a EU Council abuse its powers and decide that member states will have to pay a fine if they don't accept migrants? No, that's not true: The EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council agreed to recommend a new solidarity mechanism to be considered by the Council Presidency and the EU Parliament which would allow for the voluntary relocation of refugees from member states with the highest number of asylum seekers, with the goal of easing pressure on the "frontline countries". The Council did not decide to impose fines of twenty thousand Euros per case on members who refuse to accept migrants.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @fidesz_hu on 09. June 2023 under the title "This is unacceptable!" saying:
This is an automatic mechanism, we called this (a?) migrant quota earlier. The European Union wanted to force this several times, at the end they introduced a volunteer quota which was not successful as obviosuly big volunteer undertakings didn't happen. This is why they want to force this, if it didn't work voluntarily, they will force it to be mandatory. And they want to force this on Hungary too. And if Hungary is not willing to this, it already includes a punishment: Hungary has to pay 20-22 thousand Euros per non-accepted migrant.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Jun 12 15:15:25 2023 UTC)
The EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council made up mostly of Interior Ministers from member states met on June 8th and agreed on a negotiating position regarding asylum and migration procedures and management regulations. The position that they voted on will form the basis of negotiations by the Council presidency with the European Parliament.
The position includes a new version of the solidarity mechanism whereby the EU can relocate 30 thousand asylum seekers annually from member states with the highest number of asylum seekers. The mechanism states that "no member state will ever be obliged to carry out relocations", and member states can contribute financially or by deploying personnel to the mechanism.
The position required a simple majority to pass and while voting results have not yet been published, the video recording shows the speaker declaring that a broad majority supported the position.
Maria Malmer Stenergard, the Swedish Migration Minister, the chair of the meeting stated that:
No member state can deal with the challenges of migration alone. Frontline countries need our solidarity. And all member states must be able to rely on responsible adherence to the agreed rule. I am very glad that on this basis we agreed on our negotiating position.
According to a press release, the new solidarity mechanism offers "mandatory solidarity with flexibility for member states as regards the choice of individual contributions. These contributions include relocation, financial contributions or alternative solidarity measures such as deployment of personnel or measures focusing on capacity building. Member states have full discretion as to the type of solidarity they contribute."
The amount of 20 thousand euros mentioned by the council is not a fine for not accepting asylum-seeking migrants but could be a contribution to the EU relocation effort.
