No agreement on refugee quotas reached between V4 countries, Western EU

Foreign ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) agreed here Friday with their counterparts from Germany and Luxembourg that the current refugee crisis in the European Union needs to be addressed throughout Europe, and welcomed the European Commission proposals to deal with the crisis.

However, the different stance between Western European Union and V4 countries -- Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia -- regarding the proposed mandatory quotas for redistributing refugees remains unsolved. Berlin is calling for the solidarity of all EU members, but V4 countries refused to accept refugees under the proposed mandatory quotas.

Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said at the press conference after the meeting that the group supported a joint European solution and praised the new plan presented on Wednesday by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

But the disputed issue surrounds the proposed reallocation of an additional 120,000 immigrants from Italy, Greece and Hungary to other Member States. Total refugees to be spread across EU should be about 160,000.

Zaoralek said they still believe the mandatory quotas alone is no solution to the issue. His Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak rejected the claims V4 countries were behaving unsympathetically. Instead, he said their attitude is responsible.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country is the main destination for migrants, said he expected about 40,000 refugees to arrive in Germany in the upcoming weekend alone. Around 800,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Germany this year. He said this may be the biggest challenge of the European Union in its history. As such, he reiterated his appeal to the solidarity of other members of EU in coping with the influx.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he considers the protection of the Schengen border area the most important measure to ensure. Without that, there will be no further action effective, according to him.

In this context, he announced that Hungary will complete the construction of the controversial fence at its border with Serbia next week, and a new law that will punish breaking the fence with imprisonment will take effect.

If Hungary had taken no measures against refugees, it would have had up to half a million refugees on its territory by the end of this year, said Szijjarto. He said there are about 180,000 refugees in Hungary at present. Endit