EU migration pact takes effect as Poland secures temporary opt-out, opposition vows to scrap it

The long-negotiated EU migration and asylum pact became law across all member states on Friday, 12 June 2026. It establishes a permanent solidarity mechanism under which countries must choose between accepting relocated migrants, paying a financial contribution of around €20,000 per person refused, or providing alternative support such as border guards or reception centres. The European Commission has set the 2026 solidarity pool at 21,000 migrants or a total of €420 million in equivalent payments.

Poland’s exemption and government line

Poland was recognised by the Commission as being under significant migratory pressure and has been excused from contributing to the solidarity pool until the end of 2026. The exemption was secured through negotiations led by Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński, coordinator of special services Tomasz Siemoniak and deputy interior minister Maciej Duszczyk. Warsaw insists it will not implement any provisions that could lower national security or act as a magnet for irregular migrants. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Karolina Gałecka, said Poland “will implement only those rules that strengthen border protection, tighten migration policy and increase access to data for fighting illegal migration.” Deputy minister Duszczyk added that Poland will not apply border procedures along the frontier with Belarus and Russia, arguing they could be exploited by those regimes for further destabilisation.

Opposition accusations of “blackmail” and “lies”

The reaction from opposition parties was swift and sharp. Przemysław Czarnek, the Law and Justice candidate for prime minister, posted a video on X declaring the pact was designed “to shift responsibility for the wrong decisions of Western European politicians onto countries like Poland.” He accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of lying about Poland being excluded from the pact and promised: “When Law and Justice returns to power, Poland will unilaterally terminate the migration pact.”

Confederation MEPs Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik and Anna Bryłka both argued that the temporary exemption is deceptive. Zajączkowska-Hernik called the mechanism “not a migration pact but migration blackmail,” noting that the Commission will reassess each year whether to keep Poland out of the solidarity pool. She warned the tool could be used as political leverage during election campaigns. Bryłka stressed that Poland participates fully in the pact and is simply not required to make a financial contribution for this year. She pointed out that only Denmark has a legal opt-out, while Hungary and Slovakia have political declarations of non‑participation.

“This is not a migration pact but migration blackmail, and it needs to be said loudly.”

The expert view: solidarity helped Poland

Prof. Jan Brzozowski, head of the Jagiellonian Centre for Migration Studies, told Fakt that the political narrative around the pact is full of myths. He noted that Poland accepted about one million forced migrants from Ukraine after Russia’s full‑scale invasion, plus another million earlier economic migrants. At the peak in March 2022, around 3.5 million Ukrainians were on Polish territory. Had the EU not activated the Temporary Protection Directive and allowed free movement within the bloc, Poland alone would have had to handle approximately three million people rather than one million. “Those extra forced migrants from Ukraine were taken in by other EU countries, especially Germany, in accordance with the principle of solidarity,” he said.

“If the EU had told us ‘this is your problem’ and not applied the principle of solidarity, we might now have enormous social unrest and nearly three times as many forced migrants from Ukraine.”

Civil society patrols and distrust

On the day the pact came into force, Robert Bąkiewicz, leader of the Border Defence Movement, held a press conference in Słubice on the Polish‑German border. He said his group operates along the entire western frontier because of the threats linked to the pact. Bąkiewicz said he does not trust Donald Tusk or the EU’s assurances that no migrants will be directed to Poland in the solidarity mechanism’s first year. He recalled incidents last year when dozens of migrants were pushed back from Germany into Poland across the Słubice bridge and warned that the temporary reprieve gives no guarantee for 2027 or beyond.

“We do not trust Donald Tusk or the European Union, which is currently assuring us that under the solidarity mechanism migrants will not be directed to Poland.”