EU dispute over refugees deepens

– The new prime ministers of Poland and the Czech Republic vowed not to give any ground on the divisive issue of hosting refugees as they arrived in Brussels yesterday for their first summit of European Union (EU) leaders.

More than two years after a massive influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa created deep divisions in the EU, members are still feuding over how to share the burden of caring for asylum seekers.

The dispute pits frontline coun- tries Italy and Greece, and rich destination countries like Germany, against four ex-communist states – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia – that have refused to take in refugees.

Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki and the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis, who both took office earlier this month, made clear that they would maintain the hard line of their predecessors.

“It is worth investing considerable amounts of money in helping refugees in (regions) they are fleeing from. The help on the ground there is much more effective,” Morawiecki said, explaining that Warsaw was ready to do that instead of taking in refugees.

The four eastern prime ministers offered €35 million (R553 million) to Italy to support EU-backed migration projects in Libya aimed at curbing immigration to Europe.

The dispute was reignited this week when Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs the summits, came out against obligatory relocation quotas, ruffling feathers in many EU states. –