Poland wins after EU backs its proposed asylum ban for Russia, Belarus

BRUSSELS — EU leaders on Thursday rallied behind Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s threat to temporarily ban asylum for those coming from Russia or Belarus, warning Moscow not to weaponize migrant flows to destabilize European countries.

“Russia and Belarus, or any other country, cannot be allowed to abuse our values, including the right to asylum, and to undermine our democracies,” read a statement from the European Union’s 27 leaders following their meeting in Brussels.

The statement was a win for Tusk, who last week announced that Poland would temporarily suspend asylum rights for migrants headed to his country via its border with Belarus. The influx, he said, had been orchestrated by Russia as part of “hybrid warfare” tactics designed to destabilize Poland.

“Exceptional situations require appropriate measures,” the statement went on.

Tusk wanted the EU to back the idea that a country can invoke security reasons as justification for suspending asylum rights — and he got it.

“I have just come from a meeting with all the most important leaders and what I wanted to achieve, I achieved,” Tusk told journalists.

The statement was a win for Donald Tusk, who last week announced that Poland would temporarily suspend asylum rights for migrants headed to his country via its border with Belarus. | Omar Marques/Getty Images

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen praised the discussion among leaders as being “finally more realistic and honest when it comes to migrants and asylum seekers,” according to a EU diplomat with knowledge of exchanges between leaders. They were granted anonymity to speak freely about the private conversation, as were others quoted in this story.

“We need a strategic discussion,” Frederiksen reportedly said.

A second EU diplomat added that talks had been “quite good” and “not so divisive” — a change from contentious earlier meetings on migration.

Reflecting a harsher tone on migration from EU leaders after a surge in support for right-wing parties, the final statement also called for “determined action at all levels to facilitate, increase and speed up returns from the European Union, using all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including diplomacy, development, trade and visas.”

The first diplomat and one other EU diplomat said they now expected the European Commission to work on legislation that would facilitate deportations from the bloc, create a legal framework to set up processing centers outside its borders, and explicitly allow countries to invoke security to shut their external borders.

That said, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faced pointed questions about the legality and feasability of the proposed fixes for migration.

“You have to be very clear that you have a state actor [that] is having a hybrid attack against the country,” she said when asked how the Commission might design rules on suspending asylum rights.

Quizzed about ethical considerations around migrant processing centers, the EU executive leader said there were “open questions” as to how such centers would function.

The final conclusions carried no mention of the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, which was finalized earlier this year but faces criticism from a number of countries, including Poland. That was another victory for Tusk, who had opposed including any mention.