Divisions deepen as Hungary vows to hold ballot on refugee quotas

Hungary has called for a referendum on an EU quota plan to distribute refugees among member states, while Austria has told Germany it had to back tougher Balkan border security or accept unlimited numbers of asylum seekers.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, meanwhile, yesterday launched his latest salvo against the quota scheme championed by Berlin, while Greece lambasted Austria's refusal to invite it to join other Balkan states for crisis talks in Vienna.

Divisions among EU and Balkan states deepened as Greek officials warned that tens of thousands of migrants could soon be trapped on its territory due to Macedonia’s imposition of tighter borer controls.

Mr Orbán has denounced Germany's welcoming stance towards asylum seekers. Along with Slovakia, Hungary is taking legal action to block a Berlin-led plan approved last year for 160,000 refugees to be relocated among EU members.

The date for a Hungarian referendum has not been set, but the question will be: "Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?"

Mr Orbán said that “those who vote ‘no’ in the referendum will stand up for Hungary’s sovereignty and reject mandatory quotas”.

“To introduce mandatory settlement quotas without the consent of the people is nothing short of the abuse of power,” he said. “Neither Brussels nor the European Union or any other European agency has such powers.”

Mr Orbán built fences on Hungary's borders with Croatia and Serbia to block the influx of mostly Muslim migrants and refugees, whom he calls a threat to Europe's security and Christian identity.

“To us this is a fundamental, unavoidable, essential question of Hungarian politics: can anyone else decide for Hungarians, about whom we Hungarians should or should not live with?” he said.

Only 500 relocated

Only about 500 of the 160,000 refugees covered in last year’s distribution plan have been relocated, and Germany’s bid to forge a long-term quota system has been stymied by staunch opposition in central

Europe

and elsewhere.

The EU's €3 billion deal with Turkey to stop refugees heading for Greece is also failing, with 110,000 migrants reaching Europe so far this year – 10 times the number that crossed the Mediterranean during the first two months of 2015.

With Macedonia now tightly restricting the inflow of refugees, Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas said about 12,000 migrants were stuck in Greece and "tens of thousands" could soon be trapped there.

Athens sharply criticised Austria’s failure to invite its officials to join crisis talks with other Balkan states, at which they called for “the migration flow . . . to be substantially reduced.”

After the Vienna meeting, Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said: “Germany has to decide what signals Germany wants to send.

“Currently they are sending the following signals: that they are allowing Greece to agree to the open-door policy, and on the other hand they are demanding that Austria stop all those who want to travel to Germany, or reduce the quota of 3,200,” she said, referring to the maximum number of asylum seekers that Austria allows to cross into Germany each day.

“This is a question of survival for the EU,” Ms Mikl-Leitner added. “I am optimistic that we can reach a joint EU response. The question is when.”