EU launches legal action against 3 countries over refugees
BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Wednesday launched legal action against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for failing to respect their commitment to take in refugees.
The Commission, which polices EU agreements, sent formal letters of notice to the three states giving them one month to respond to its concerns. They could be taken to Europe’s top court, the European Court of Justice, if the matter is not resolved.
EU countries agreed in September 2015 to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy as the two countries struggled to cope with more than a million migrants who entered Europe mostly through their borders that year.
The Commission said in a statement that despite “repeated calls for action, these three countries remain in breach of their legal obligations and have shown disregard for their commitments to Greece, Italy and other member states.”