MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The EU quota system on the resettlement of thousands of refugees has failed in a political sense, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Friday.
"Mandatory quota [system] became a dead political issue," Fico said, as quoted by the Czech News Agency, after a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, whose nation had opposed the migrant quota system at the recent referendum on the issue.
Europe has suffered a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. In order to solve the problem, the European Union adopted quotas system last September, which suggests relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers across the bloc within two years.
Brussels’ quota system for refugee admission took into account demographic, social and economic indicators for each country.
The quota system faced severe criticism from several EU member states primarily from the eastern part of the bloc, such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, who opposed its mandatory nature.
