Prague, Oct 1 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is still convinced that the mandatory refugee quotas will solve nothing, but it respects the EU’s decision on them and neither hysteria nor isolationism will be helpful in this case, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told MPs yesterday.
The EU countries’ interior ministers agreed recently on the voluntary sharing of 40,000 refugees and the redistribution of another 120,000 based on mandatory quotas. The Czech Republic and some other countries opposed to the quotas were outvoted.
“In our situation, we will not succeed by some premature and impetuous steps that we would take only for effect. We will succeed neither with hysteria nor the policy of isolation,” said Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) who joined the debate on migration in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house od parliament, later yesterday.
He reiterated that the Czech Republic would not follow the example of the neighbouring Slovakia that would like to file a legal complaint against the quotas with the European Court of Justice.
“We accept the results of the EU Council of Ministers’s talks about the redistribution of 120,000 refugees and will keep negotiating from this position,” he said.
Part of the opposition calls on the government to bring a legal action over the quotas, similar to Slovakia.
“We cannot be excluded from the debate on further procedure. In such a case, the Czech Republic would really cease defending its interest. We should not take steps that would weaken our position in the future,” Sobotka pointed out.
He talked about the results of the latest European summit on the migration crisis, in particular about the resumed controls along the EU external border, the establishment of hotspots for the registration of migrants and the improvement of cooperation with Turkey as well as the conditions of refugees in Syria and its surroundings.
“It will be crucial now to implement the measures as soon and efficiently as possible,” Sobotka said.
According to him, the defeat of Islamic State and the stabilisation of the situation in the Middle East are the most efficient ways to deal with the migration crisis. The West must find the path to make agreement with Russia about Syria and the civil war must be terminated there, he added.
