Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic will challenge the EU on migration quotas. They do not want to accept migrants or pay compensation for rejections. They want to avoid the developments in countries like Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom at all costs.

The Hungarian Prime Minister rejected the implementation of the EU’s migration pact this week.

“I want to make it clear once and for all: as long as Hungary has a patriotic government, we will not implement the migration pact,” Viktor Orbán wrote in a post on X.

Despite Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak resistance, the EU approved the migration and asylum pact in May 2024. It aims to distribute asylum seekers more evenly among member states and reform the Union’s border and asylum procedures. All EU countries are forced to contribute in proportion to their population and GDP to alleviate the burden on countries considered to be under migration pressure, mostly located in southern Europe.

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Countries have three options: to relocate a certain number of asylum seekers to their own territory, pay 20,000 euros per person they refuse to relocate, or finance operational support in member states considered to be under pressure. A combination of the three is also possible.

While the EU took another step on Tuesday in implementing the pact by launching the first annual migration management cycle, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic make it clear that they do not want to contribute either by accepting relocations or providing financial support.

More rejections

“Poland will not accept migrants under the migration pact. We will not pay for it either,” wrote Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on X shortly after the presentation of the Commission’s report.

Earlier this year, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico sent a similar warning to Brussels, claiming that his country would not participate in the system and would not contribute to the solidarity fund.

The incoming Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has not yet appointed a government but has already rejected the quota system citing national security reasons.

The issue is likely to be discussed by the 27 EU leaders during the last meeting of the European Council this year, scheduled for December 18-19.

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