Migration key topic at Bratislava EU summit: experts

The European Union (EU)'s response to migration flows, a key point of the informal EU leaders summit here on Friday, is still a divided issue which requires compromise to solve, said local experts.

This topic has divided EU member states for more than a year. The biggest countries, such as Germany, France or Italy, support proportional relocation of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa. However, the V4 countries -- Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary -- refuse this approach.

According to Czech economist Petr Lebeda, the key problem for the V4 countries lies at the symbolic level.

"It is important to find alternative solutions in tackling migration. If a country accepted less migrants, they should be, for instance, more involved in the aid for third countries, which are transit routes for migrants," explained Lebeda.

Slovak parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Frantisek Sebej agreed with this position.

"The EU can't leave the entire migration issue only on the shoulders of countries that are exposed to heavy migrant flows, such as Greece and Italy; it has to tackle the issue together," stressed Sebej.

Meanwhile, Jean-Claude Juncker in his State of the Union speech called on Slovakia, as the presiding country, to overcome the differences among member states in terms of migration.

Slovak Foreign Affairs State Secretary Ivan Korcok said he understood the complicated position of Slovakia, which strongly refuses the quotas, but as a presiding country it should find a compromise solution.

"Although in the issues of mandatory quotas and relocation the views aren't unified, Slovakia accepts Juncker's message, but it will be difficult to overcome these differences," added Korcok. Endit