Premier: If Participation in Marrakech Means Support, Slovakia Won't Go

Premier: If Participation in Marrakech Means Support, Slovakia Won't Go

Brussels/Bratislava, November 25 (TASR correspondent) – Slovakia will in no way support the UN Global Compact for Migration, and if Slovakia’s participation in the negotiations on the compact in Marrakech next month at any level – ministerial or other – means automatically joining, nobody will attend the negotiations on behalf of Slovakia, said Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini after an extraordinary EU summit in Brussels on Sunday.

The premier wants an analysis on whether participation in the negotiations in Marrakech will commit Slovakia to anything.
“Slovakia has a problem with the text of the UN compact, as it is proposed today. Slovakia doesn’t think there isn’t any difference between legal and illegal migration, and we consider economic migration to be illegal, harmful and a security risk,” said Pellegrini, adding that Slovakia won’t agree with the compact. “If the participation of any Slovak representative automatically means joining the Marrakech protocol, no one, including the [foreign affairs] minister [Miroslav Lajcak], will attend the meeting in Marrakech for Slovakia,” he added.
Pellegrini also said that he’ll ask Lajcak (a Smer-SD nominee) along with State Secretary Lukas Parizek from the Slovak National Party (SNS) for an analysis on Slovakia’s participation or non-participation in Marrakech.
“If a legal analysis shows that it may be appropriate for a lower representative of Slovakia to attend this conference and clearly tell everybody what Slovakia will never agree to … and that our participation won’t mean that we’ll become as if a signatory to the compact, I see no reason why someone from Slovakia or an ambassador from the respective embassy couldn’t go there and present our reservations,” stated the prime minister.
Pellegrini has spoken about an analysis with Lajcak, who, according to the premier, considers this stance to be fair. The prime minister believes that the Government won’t lose Lajcak. “I believe that as prime minister I’ll be able to convince the minister to reconcile himself with the Government’s decision and that he’ll put serving Slovakia above his personal opinion,” said Pellegrini.
The UN Global Compact for Migration is dividing the political scene, with several parties rejecting it. SNS insists that Slovakia shouldn’t participate in the negotiations in Marrakech, while Lajcak has threatened to resign over the matter.