What the EU plans next as row over asylum seekers intensifies
The EU’s executive will consider legal action against Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, but Budapest rejects ‘blackmail from Brussels’
Brussels — The EU’s executive would decide on Tuesday to open legal cases against three eastern members for failing to take in asylum seekers to relieve states on the front lines of the bloc’s migration crisis, sources said. The European Commission would agree at a regular meeting to send letters of formal notice to Poland and Hungary, three diplomats and EU officials said. Two others said the Czech Republic was also on the list. This would mark a sharp escalation of the internal EU disputes over migration. Such letters are the first step in the infringement procedures the commission can open against EU states for failing to meet their legal obligations. The eastern allies Poland and Hungary have vowed not to budge. Their opposition to accepting asylum-seekers, and criticism of Brussels for trying to enforce the scheme, are popular among their nationalist-minded, eurosceptic voters. Speaking in Hungary’s parliament earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed not to give in ...
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