German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday called for rapid implementation of a reformed European Union Common European Asylum System (CEAS), as the Polish Cabinet discussed the suspension of the right to asylum.
During her meeting in Berlin with her North Macedonian counterpart, Timčo Mucunski, Baerbock said the new package “must now be decided and implemented with ambition.”
The Polish cabinet discussed the suspension of asylum rights on Tuesday.
Poland and the EU accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ally, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, of deliberately sending migrants from crisis areas to Poland’s eastern border with Belarus. The border is also the external border of the EU.
The EU Member States and the European Parliament agreed on a reform of the CEAS in December after lengthy debate. The reforms ensure that the rules on asylum procedures are tightened.
Baerbock said Putin used migration as a weapon. “We as Europeans must jointly oppose this hybrid warfare. We must not forget that Putin’s goal is to divide European society,” she said.
Unity in the EU was essential, especially on migration, to ensure that populists were not allowed to make sweeping generalizations about certain groups to defame them, Baerbock said.
