Midday brief, in brief

Today at Commission, ECJ ruling and Catalonia

The EU will go to court and seek punitive action if dissenters don’t start respecting EU migration laws.

It was a busy Wednesday at the Berlaymont, where the College of Commissioners discussed the favorable (to the EU) ruling by the European Court of Justice on migration policies, offered input on Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s upcoming State of the Union speech, and was briefed by chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, on the third round of talks.

In the press hall, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, gave the readout of the meeting, which focused almost entirely on the migration ruling by the ECJ, which backed the EU’s emergency migration relocation policy. Avramopoulos hailed the court decision, which dismissed a challenge to the policy by Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. He urged the four countries to immediately begin showing “solidarity” with Greece and Italy, which have borne the brunt of the migration crisis, and drop their refusal to accept relocated migrants.

Avramopoulos also said pointedly that if the four continue to defy the migration policy, the EU will go back to court and seek punitive action.

The commission’s chief spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, led an abbreviated midday press briefing while waiting for Avramopoulos, and began by promising a busy Thursday in the press hall with briefings by the security commissioner, Julian King, on reports adopted by the Commission on forming a “security union;” by the trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, on a proposal to block the trade of goods used in torture; and then a press conference by Barnier on new positions papers that the EU’s Brexit negotiators will be issuing. (The main one is expected to deal with Ireland and Northern Ireland.)

In response to questions, Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said officials were still studying a new ECJ ruling that overturned a landmark €1.06 billion antitrust fine against Intel, the U.S.-based computer chipmaker. Cardoso declined to comment on the potential ramifications for other major EU antitrust actions and investigations.

Schinas declined to answer a question about the push by the regional government of Catalonia for an independence referendum, saying that the Commission does not express opinions “on matters which are constitutional issues with member states.”

But Schinas seemed taken aback when he was asked why the Commission had strong views on constitutional issues in Poland, including a long-running fight over the Polish government’s effort to reshape its court system, but refrained from giving a view on the constitutional issues in Catalonia’s dispute with Madrid over self-determination rights.

“With all due respect,” Schinas said. “I don’t think you can draw a comparison between our position [on Catalonia], which has been well known for some time now, right from the Prodi Commission, reiterated through three successive colleges, you can’t draw a comparison between our position there and the whole issue of the rule of law, which is a quite different matter.”

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And with that, he was ready to go find Avramopoulos. “Thank you for your interest,” he said. “Let’s leave it there.”