Hungary to hold referendum on EU migrant quotas Oct. 2

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hungary will hold a referendum on October 2 on troubled EU plans to relocate migrants among member states, a scheme fiercely opposed by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the president said Tuesday, July 5, according to AFP.

"As president of the republic I decree that the referendum will be held on October 2," Janos Ader said in a statement.

Orban's government voted against the European Union's plan to share 160,000 migrants around the 28-nation bloc via mandatory quotas, but the scheme was approved by a majority of member states in September.

Hungary has joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge against the plan, which was meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points into the bloc for migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war, AFP says.

Budapest said earlier this year that the issue would be put to a referendum. Orban has said that the EU has no right to "redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity".

Voters will be asked: "Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament?"

Budapest says that the plan -- which has been extremely slow to get going -- violates its national sovereignty and that "terrorists" might enter the country disguised as migrants.

As of July 1, fewer than 2,800 people -- 789 from Italy and 1,994 from Greece -- have been relocated, according to EU data. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.