Slovakia will never support mandatory quotas as part of the European Union's response to its migrant crisis, Prime Minister Robert Fico said today, underlining a tough stance that has put the country at odds with other EU members.
Fico also told reporters his country was calling for an extraordinary EU summit, adding that deciding such things at ministerial level was not appropriate.
"We will never accept mandatory quotas for distribution of refugees," Fico said. "Never. Even if we stay alone. We consider them irrational, harmful and they will never save anyone nor solve anything."
Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, has been adamant in opposing mandatory quotas to take in some of the wave of refugees from Asia, the Middle east and Africastreaming to Europe in search of asylum.
The stance of the EU's eastern members spurred Germany's interior minister to suggest that the EU should considering imposing financial penalties on member states that do not take their share of refugees.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel later appeared to row back from the threat, but Fico said any such move would mean the end of the EU.