Sensible policies….
The EU’s plan: accept migrants or pay €20,000 per head. Latvia’s answer: keep the invoice.
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže announced during the annual foreign policy debate in parliament that Latvia will not accept any migrants under the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. She also stated that Latvia will refuse to pay the €20,000 per migrant penalty that the pact imposes on countries that decline to participate in the relocation program.
Latvia has completed its border fence and stopped over 12,000 migrants from crossing into the country. Braže said Latvia is willing to share its border protection experience with other EU members but will not comply with forced redistribution. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have taken similar positions.
Southern EU states like Italy, Spain, and Greece support the pact as a way to share the burden. The divide within the bloc continues to grow.
