Simko Abstained from Voting on EU-wide Asylum Reform in Luxembourg

Bratislava/Luxembourg, June 9 (TASR) - Slovak Interior Minister Ivan Simko abstained from voting on the draft reform of the EU-wide asylum system at the meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Thursday (June 8), Interior Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova has told TASR. EU ministers eventually approved the respective proposals. Simko said he abstained as the caretaker government has a limited mandate. "Some provisions remain hardly acceptable and politically impassable for Slovakia, partly due to a limited mandate of the current government, which I represent here. Even the amendments to the wording didn't make the situation easier for us, which is why I abstained from voting on both proposals," stated Simko. His spokesperson noted that the minister abstained from the voting despite the fact that the proposals didn't cross Slovakia's red line, which is mandatory quotas for migrants' redistribution. She added that there is currently a general agreement in the EU on what Slovakia has been claiming since the very beginning - that the mandatory admission of migrants is not a solution to migration flows into the EU. Eliasova pointed to the fact that approval of directives at the ministerial level is just the first step. Negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission will follow and the final draft will be judged by EU member states again. ko/mcs