The leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have announced plans to boycott a June 24 EU mini-summit on migration. Their decision was announced following a meeting of the “Visegrad 4” former Communist countries.
“We understand there are domestic political difficulties in some countries but that cannot lead to pan-European haste,” said Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “We understand that there will…be a mini-summit on Sunday but we would like to state clearly that the prime ministers of V4 agreed that they will not go to that.”
The mini-summit was called by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is seeking backing for measures she hopes will satisfy coalition partners who have demanded the EU do more to share the burden of hosting asylum seekers.
As reported by Euronews, the four eastern EU states strongly oppose calls from western counterparts for all member states to accept quotas of asylum seekers.
The 10 EU countries that will attend the mini-summit include Italy and Greece, where most migrants first arrive, and richer countries further north where many have sought to stay.
In a separate report, Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, noted that the Visegrad group’s decision to boycott the mini-summit comes at a tense moment in the EU concerning irregular migration. EU member states have been locked in a heated debate on how to move forward on migration, with several countries rejecting relocation quotas.
