Slovakia Files Suit at the European Court

The New Observer
December 4, 2015

In yet another severe blow to European Union unity, the government of Slovakia today made good on its promise to file a lawsuit against that organization’s leaders—saying that its demand that nonwhite invaders be “distributed” equally throughout the EU was illegal.

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The suit was officially handed in at the Luxembourg offices of the European Court of Justice following the September 22 decision by EU Interior Ministers which mandated that 120,000 invaders would have to be divided up, by quota, among all bloc members.

Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, all voted against the motion, while Finland abstained. The decision was forced through with a so-called “qualified majority.”

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that the suit would challenge the Minister’s jurisdiction and that the decision violates the right of national parliaments of EU countries to participate in such decisions. The court papers had to be filed by December 18.

“This [quota] decision was adopted in breach of European law and is unfeasible,” Prime Minister Fico told the media. “In practice it has also been demonstrated that quotas are a fiasco.”

He said the suit would also call into question the way in which the Ministers of Interior decided on the quotas.

“We believe that the Council of Interior Ministers should decide by unanimity and not majority, because in this case the commission voted on the proposal and changes were made to this proposal. In such an event, as the applicable law states, a decision can only be decided by a unanimous vote,” Fico said.

The lawsuit is likely to be joined shortly by Hungary and Poland. In mid-November, the Hungarian Parliament passed a motion authorizing the government to proceed with legal action against the EU in the quota matter.

Furthermore, Fico is due to meet the newly-elected Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlovou this week in Prague, where they will discuss further joint action.

Only the Czech Republic government’s position remains unclear at this stage, mainly because it is comprised of a center-left coalition which is undecided about the matter. The far-left Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka earlier indicated that his government would not join the lawsuit, “because it would weaken its position in the European Union.”

This positon was however rejected by Finance Minister Andrej Babis, who said that “the quotas are nonsense. The Polish government also says it is nonsense. Everybody knows that.”