WARSAW (Sputnik) — The mandatory EU scheme was established in 2015 and was aimed at relocating of 160,000 refugees held in Greece and Italy throughout the bloc with a specific quota for each member state.
"No one believes that it is possible… I don't know anyone in Europe who could have suggested this," Steinmeier said answering the question on the possibility of building a refugee camp in Poland for mandatory relocation.
Austria, Hungary and Poland remained the only EU members which have not accepted migrants in line with the program. Austria, however, had formally pledged to relocate 50 people from Italy but has yet to start the process.
On Tuesday, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said that the EU Commission could launch infringement procedures against Budapest and Warsaw if the two states did not start relocating refugees from other European states. Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo responded by saying that Warsaw is unable to accept refugees and will not agree with its refugee quota.
After meeting Steinmeier, the Polish president said that Warsaw would help those who would really come to Poland for asylum, but he refused to accept the idea that refugees should be brought to Poland by force and restricted from leaving the country.
