- The European Commission Sues Eastern States Of EU For Not Accepting Refugees

- Agencies (IRW) - The European Commission is suing eastern member states for failing to fulfill their legal obligations in accepting a share of asylum seekers. The defendants claim that the EU is interfering with their sovereignty.

The European Commission took the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Thursday over their failure to accept their required quotas for refugees.

The contentious scheme, which was adopted at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, was focused on "burden-sharing," meaning that 160,000 refugees should be relocated across most of the bloc's 28 member-states to ease the burden on Greece and Italy.

It means that the three eastern nations would have to settle around 8,000 migrants between them as part of the quota. However, so far Hungary and Poland have taken in none at all, while the Czech Republic has accepted just 12.

By pursuing these countries at the ECJ, Brussels is showing its determination to see this scheme carried out. It is also fueling a new clash between the EU body and important eastern member states.

"The European Commission has today decided to refer the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation," the Commission said in a statement. "This is why the Commission has decided to move to the next stage of the infringement procedure and refer the three member states to the Court of Justice of the EU."

Source: DW