Emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers convened

in Brussels

An emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers has been convened for next Tuesday in a bid to secure agreement on a cohesive EU response to the migration crisis after a similar meeting in Brussels on Monday ended without agreement.

Amid calls from German chancellor Angela Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Werner Faymann for an EU summit next week, the Luxembourg presidency of the Council of the European Union announced plans for an extraordinary meeting of justice ministers in order to agree to a mechanism to relocate 120,000 refugees across the European Union.

A leaders’ summit could still be called, as the EU grapples with a migration crisis that has revealed sharp divisions between member states.

As Hungary imposed stringent border checks on its border with Serbia, and considered extending a 175km fence to its border with Romania, east European countries criticised suggestions from Berlin that EU structural funds could be withheld from countries opposed to the EU's relocation plan.

The Czech state secretary for the EU said the suggestion, voiced by German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere in Brussels, had no legal basis.

"German threats that central Europe will be punished by cutting cohesion funds are empty but very damaging to all," he tweeted, while Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico said that countries had never before been punished for having different opinions. Such a move would mean "the end of the EU", he said.

No agreement

A day after a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels broke down without agreement after member states clashed over the European Commission’s mandatory relocation plan for 120,000 refugees, the Slovakian leader reiterated his country’s opposition to mandatory quotas.

“We will never accept mandatory quotas for distribution of refugees,” Fico said. “Never. Even if we stay alone. We consider them irrational, harmful and they will never save anyone nor solve anything.”

His comments illustrate the scale of the challenge facing the European Union as it tries to strike a consensus on the proposal.

‘Acting together’

Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, criticised the response of the European Union to the crisis, which he said should be “acting together in order to grant protection to those who need protection”. “In the middle of this chaotic situation, member states try to take their own measures,” he said.

The Council of Europe became the latest body to criticise the Hungarian stance. General secretary Thorbjorn Jagland is to write to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán about new legislation adopted by Hungary in a response to the migration crisis. Last week the human rights body, of which Hungary is a member, warned members that they must adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights in their treatment of migrants.

Earlier, following a meeting with Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann, Dr Merkel said that the impulse to open Germany’s borders was “the right one” but “we need to do these things so our security interests are served”.

As Austria said it intended to impose stricter border controls with Hungary at midnight last night, the European Commission confirmed it had received notification from Austria of its decision to reintroduce border controls with Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Slovakia.

“The temporary reintroduction of border controls between member states is an exceptional possibility explicitly foreseen in and regulated by the Schengen Borders Code, in case of a crisis situation,” the commission said in a statement. “The current situation in Austria, prima facie, appears to be a situation covered by the rules.”