EU Commissioner of Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos | JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images EU migration chief: Forget the ‘political cost’ Migration commissioner says EU leaders need to stop worrying about reelection.

EU leaders should be more like the European Commission, according to Dimitris Avramopoulos: They should stop thinking about the political cost of accepting refugees.

Avramopoulos, 62, is the European commissioner in charge of the contentious migration issue, and the man who is steering EU policy to deal with an exodus of refugees from the Middle East and Africa that has reached almost biblical proportions.

The recent months have seen a lot of finger-pointing and name-calling over Europe's response to the crisis. But in an interview with POLITICO in his Brussels office, Avramopoulos said those who argue that the Commission caused the chaos are misguided.

“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 reelected. That is why for us the political cost means nothing."

European leaders, he said, should be similarly bold. "This is the message I would send all around Europe: stop thinking about the so-called political cost," Avramopoulos said.



A former mayor of Athens and Greek defense minister, Avramopoulos said he was satisfied with the EU's actions this week in response to the refugee situation. On Tuesday a meeting of interior ministers approved a controversial relocation of 120,000 refugees — over the strong objection of several countries — and on Wednesday a summit of EU leaders moved toward stronger control of Europe's external borders.

But Avramopoulos said it would be a mistake to compare the aquarium of these two achievements with the sea of problems Europe is facing.



“I can tell you that we have made a step forward but I don’t want to give the impression that I am over-romantic," Avramopoulos said. "The situation will be complicated and difficult for years to come.”

Other EU leaders agree with that assessment. European Council President Donald Tusk said before this week's summit that the problem facing the Continent is enormous. “We should be talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe from Syria alone,” Tusk said.

But Avramopoulos said he did not agree with Tusk and other leaders who have argued that EU policies are acting as a magnet for those refugees. In particular some Eastern European countries have argued that asylum-seekers would feel encouraged to risk difficult sea or land journeys by relocation policies and by Germany’s decision to open the door to Syrian refugees.

The Continent “is not a pull factor," the commissioner said, referring instead to the lure of a better life here. "In the last decades we have made great progress and we must be proud of it … but we must not blame Europe.”

He also disagreed with those who have described as overly harsh or selfish the Eastern European countries, such as Hungary and Slovakia, that have fiercely opposed the mandatory quotas proposed by the Commission.

But he admitted that dealing with those countries has not been easy. “I do not agree with this description," he said, "but within some member states there are some strong reactions.”

Those reluctant Eastern and Central European countries were cornered Tuesday when interior ministers voted by majority rather than consensus on the relocation plan. Majority voting is common in many decisions, but not when they are as controversial as this one.

Avramopoulos argued that the reason it was so difficult to get an agreement goes beyond a few dissenting countries.

“Europe is not the United States, it is not a federal system,” he said. “You don’t impose your decisions, although it was the case the other day. Because four countries out of 28 did not fully agree but now they are obliged to implement it. It’s the moment to implement what we have decided.”

He added that the decision-making process took more time “because at the beginning not only Europe but all member states were caught by surprise. Nobody would have expected this flow of refugees and irregular migrants just two years ago.”

Under the plan adopted this week, refugees will be relocated from front-line states, namely Italy and Greece. But it is Germany that had the highest number of first-time asylum applicants in the second quarter of 2015 (80,900 applicants, or 38 percent of total applicants in the EU), according to Eurostat. That means Berlin could soon find itself in the same basket with Athens and Rome.

But not now, according to Avramopoulos. Germany, he said, is “not a front-line state. If we have to amend this decision and put Germany in the list maybe we can think about it, but for the moment this is out of question.”

Avramopoulos also addressed the efforts by some politicians to make populist gestures regarding the crisis — by, for example, offering to take in refugees themselves. One such EU leader is Finland's prime minister, Juha Sipila, who said in an interview at the beginning of September that he would make his home in the north of the country available to refugees.

Would Avramopoulos, the EU's top official on the migration issue, do the same?

“It depends," he said. "I would be open to offer shelter to an unaccompanied minor but as far as the rest is concerned I believe that organized national systems and Europe with its institutions can create the conditions for a safe and decent welcome of refugees.”