According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian government cannot be blackmailed on the quota issue.

Speaking at a press conference in Prague on Wednesday, Mr. Szijjártó was reacting to a proposal by the European Commission (EC), according to which Member States would have to pay a quarter of a million euros for every migrant they refuse to admit as part of a mandatory resettlement quota.

“This is the kind of blackmail that will lead nowhere”, Mr. Szijjártó declared at the press conference following a meeting of foreign ministers from the Visegrád Group (V4) and Eastern Partnership countries.

In reply to a question from Hungarian news agency MTI, referring to the European Commission’s Vice-President, Mr. Szijjártó said that “Frans Timmermans has acknowledged that Brussels intends to apply mandatory resettlement quotas, which are unacceptable. Only the Hungarian people have the right to decide on whom we let into our country”.

The European Commission’s proposal on Wednesday was also criticised and rejected by the Czech and Polish Foreign Ministers and by the Slovakian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

The EC proposal is “an unpleasant surprise to me”, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaorálek said. He added that what is being put forward is the amendment of an essential part of EU policy on admitting refugees, which the Commission should only be able to propose if there is agreement on the issue; but there is no such agreement. “I don’t understand why we have to return to old subjects of debate. This is very unfortunate”, Mr. Zaorálek stated.

“I’m not sure whether Brussels is serious about the proposal”, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski noted.

It is Slovakia’s clear standpoint that admitting refugees can only occur on a voluntary basis. “We reject any kind of quota system”, the Slovakian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)