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Cost of migration crisis means nothing to us, says top EU official

Source: The Telegraph, 28/09/2015

Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU official in charge of migration, says
political backlash over migration 'means nothing' as he is not elected
The EU`s leaders "do not care about the political cost" of their
handling of the migration crisis because they do not have to face
election, one of its top officials has admitted.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the commissioner for migration whose
controversial plan to relocate 120,000 refugees badly split the EU
last week, said national leaders should "stop thinking about" the
backlash they face over migration.

The relocation policy is deeply unpopular in eastern Europe, but
without the threat of re-election this "means nothing", Mr
Avramopoulos said. The remarks were met with anger by British
eurosceptics.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic were outvoted on the
scheme last week, after arguing it simply will not work because
migrants will refuse to be moved from Greece and Italy to poor
countries, and quickly flee to Germany if they are.

Hungary has claimed the plan is an "invitation" to Muslim economic
migrants who threaten the country's "Christian identity".

The Polish government's decision to split with the Visegrad group of
central European neighbours and back the German-driven plan was met
with fury at home, just a month before a general election..

But Mr Avramopoulos, the architect of the policy and a former Greek
defence minister, told national governments to shrug it off.

"The Commission does not take the blame because it does not care about
the political cost," he said. "The Commission is here for five years
to do its job and we did it with vision, responsibility and
commitment. Because what is driving us is not to be re-elected. That
is why for us the political cost means nothing."

European leaders, he said, should be follow suit. "This is the message
I would send all around Europe: stop thinking about the so-called
political cost," he told Politico, a Brussels-based news website.

European Commissioners are nominated by each of the EU`s 28 member
states, and then assigned a portfolio by the president of the
commission – currently Jean-Claude Juncker.

Whether Mr Juncker`s appointment as president represented a genuine
"election" by the people of Europe – he was backed by the biggest
party bloc in the European parliament - is a matter of dispute.

Ashley Fox MEP, the leader of the Conservative Party in Europe, said:
"This shows what's wrong in the EU: powerful people who feel no need
to account for their actions. Sometimes politicians do need to take
unpopular or long-term decisions, but they also have to stand and
justify those decisions every few years."

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, added: "This unspeakable arrogance is
the result of a corrupt political system where unelected EU
bureaucrats have power without responsibility or accountability to a
national electorate."

"Eurocrats aren't even bothering to go through the democratic motions
any more," said Dan Hannan, a Tory MEP.

It came as a Right-wing populist party in Austria made huge gains in
regional elections on the back of the migrant crisis.

The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) won 30.4 per cent of the vote in the
state of Upper Austria, the country's industrial heartland, a striking
improvement on its performance in the state`s last election in 2009
when it took half as many votes with 15.3 per cent.

The party is closing in on the more centrist conservative Austrian
People`s Party (ÖVP), which lost 10.4 per cent of its vote from the
last election but managed to retain its lead to win 36.4 per cent.

Despite the welcome many refugees and migrants received from Vienna
initially, fears over the influx of refugees in Austria appear to have
played a significant role in the election. The country in recent
months has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of
migrants entering from Hungary en route to Germany.

Frans Timmermans, Mr Avramopoulos` colleague and the EU`s first vice
president, warned last week that the far right parties could surge
unless comprehensive action is taken to address the crisis.

Margaritis Schinas, the commission's chief spokesman, said officials
are "monitored throughout their work" by MEPs in the European
Parliament.

"It is one of the most effective accountability systems we have, it
works," he said.

"I won`t go into an interpretation of what he said but knowing him as
I do I have the feeling that what he had in mind is the usual sport of
Brussels bashing. The commission has not anything to regret."

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