Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary voted against the mandatory quota scheme.
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Over the objections of four former Soviet bloc EU member states, European lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to relocate 120,000 refugees from front-line states directly affected by the migration.
In an email message, Mr Sobotka said: “Even though I don’t like the use of the quotas, I don’t agree with them and we voted against them, Europe must not fall apart over solving the migrant crisis“.
“And it is not for want of trying I dare say”, said Jean Asselborn, foreign and interior minister from Luxembourg, which now holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
“We are watching Salafists appear as benefactors and helpers to contact refugees directly with the aim of inviting them into mosques”, Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Federal Office of Protection of the Constitution, said in an interview published in the Rheinische Post.
While earlier they vehemently opposed it, now Poland voted for it, leaving the three smaller V4 countries behind. After being screened, they take ferries to the mainland and then travel north overland to the more prosperous European Union countries.
Tuesday, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed Europe’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis over the phone.
As the European Union scrambles to respond to scenes of people charging razor-wire fences, suffocating in trucks or bodies washing up on beaches, unity has crumbled as nations in the 28-member bloc trade barbs over who is to blame.
Schetyna added he took into account the fact that “voting against (the migrant deal) would have made sense if it could have blocked the decision”.
The Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka was less confrontational in the aftermath of the vote, in which his country also said no to the quotas.
Slovakia said it would go to court to challenge the quota plan – a course of action ruled out by the Czechs – and would not implement it. Romania said the number of migrants and refugees it was expected to take in was “manageable”.
But the European Commission says it is determined to enforce what was agreed.
“This is Croatia’s brutal attack on Serbia and an attempt to destroy the Serbian economy”, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters in Belgrade.
The EU’s executive Commission plans to allocate more than 300 million euros to top up its “trust fund” for Syrian refugees.
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Police spokesman Helmut Marban said Tuesday that most of Monday’s arrivals at the Nickelsdorf crossing east of Vienna had already been brought to emergency shelters elsewhere in the country.
