New PMs of Poland, Czech Republic to maintain hard line on migrants

The new prime ministers of Poland and the Czech Republic have vowed not to give any ground on the divisive issue of hosting migrant refugees, Reuters reports. Each arrived in Brussels on Thursday for their first summit of EU leaders. The dispute among EU states pits frontline countries Italy and Greece, and rich destination countries like Germany, against four ex-communist states on the EU’s eastern edge: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. These have refused to take in refugees. Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki and the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis, each of whom took office earlier this month, vowed to maintain the hard line of their predecessors. Babis warned that any attempt to impose “nonsensical” quotas by majority vote would only deepen divisions in the EU.