PM Fiala: Poland and Hungary damaging Czech interests on migration issue

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has criticized Poland and Hungary for blocking talks on migration at the EU summit in Brussels. The Czech prime minister said Warsaw and Budapest were damaging Czech interests by doing so.

Within  the solidarity principle, Czechia managed to push through the condition that countries which host large numbers of Ukrainian refugees should get financial support, and by their adamant position on migration, Poland and Hungary are effectively blocking the funds that would help us deal with the influx of Ukrainian refugees," the Czech prime minister said.

Mr. Fiala said that critics of the EU migration deal in Prague who say the Czech government should cooperate with Poland and Hungary in this matter "really do not know what they are talking about".

The solidarity principle, which is at the centre of the migration agreement, states that countries refusing to take in migrants could pay 20,000 euros ($21,400) per person instead.

The agreement was approved with a qualified majority vote earlier this month.  Poland and Hungary were outvoted in the process. Their aim at the summit has been to challenge the legal validity of that decision.