Nitra, West Slovakia, Sept 30 (CTK) – Slovakia will file a complaint about the decision on the quota-based redistribution of refugees across the EU with the European Court of Justice, Prime Minister Robert Fico said his one-party government agreed at its meeting in Nitra yesterday.
“We do not agree with the mandatory quotas and we have formalised the opinion yesterday,” Fico said, adding that the government does not need parliament’s agreement with filing the complaint.
He said the contents of the complaint was not discussed yesterday and that experts from the interior and finance ministries are to formulate it within two months.
Fico would not guess the chances of success of the complaint, but he said he is not afraid of that the quota system could function against Bratislava’s will because it is practically unenforceable.
The EU interior ministers approved by a majority of votes the relocation of 120,000 refugees at their meeting in Brussels last week.
In addition to Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania were also against the quotas. Finland abstained from the vote.
Fico (Smer-Social Democrats) said on the following day already his country plans to file a complaint about the decision.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said Prague will not take the case to court even though its disagreement with the quotas persists.
Sobotka said the step would markedly hamper Prague’s negotiating position in future debates on the migration crisis.
Romania has also ruled out the possibility of taking legal steps against the quotas. Hungary has only said it will consider them.
Based on the decision of the EU interior ministers, Slovakia should accept 802 refugees, 612 of them from Greece and 190 from Italy.
