Prague, Sept 2 (CTK) – The proposed reduction of financial aid to the EU countries that disagree with the redistribution of refugees is absolutely unacceptable, Czech Deputy PM and Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) told reporters yesterday.
He reacted to the respective proposal by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
“I cannot imagine it at all. It would lead to the disintegration of the whole EU,” Babis said, adding that an extraordinary EU summit should be convoked immediately.
Mikl-Leitner said on Monday the possibility to limit financial means for the countries that do not show sufficient solidarity to accept refugees should be taken into consideration. However, the EU has not received a formal proposal in this respect.
Babis said the European Commission should start solving the migration problems to protect the Schengen area and prevent the refugees’ influx.
He added that humanitarian aid must be distinguished from economic refugees.
“The EC is not able to solve the problem,” he stressed.
However, EC President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday the EU would not need any extraordinary summit on migration and that the member states must implement the adopted European rules. They have not yet met the June agreement to voluntarily accept 40,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy, he added.
The European Commission proposed quotas for the redistribution of refugees among all EU states this year, but the EU summit rejected the idea. The Czech Republic is one of the EU countries that are opposed to the quotas.
Nevertheless, the Czech government approved that the country would accept 1500 refugees(1,100 from Italy and Greece and 400 from refugee camps in the Middle East).
This year, 400 migrants should arrive in the Czech Republic, while in 2016 and 2017, it should be 700 and 400, respectively.
The EU countries’ justice and interior ministers will meet on September 14.
