EU opens legal case against Warsaw, Budapest, Prague over migrationJune 14, 2017 - 11:41 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission launched a legal case on Tuesday, June 13 against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for refusing to take in asylum seekers, ratcheting up a bitter feud within the 28-nation bloc about how to deal with migration, Reuters reports. The eurosceptic, nationalist-minded governments in Poland and Hungary have refused to take in anyone under a plan agreed by a majority of EU leaders in 2015 to relocate migrants from frontline states Italy and Greece to help ease their burden. The Czech Republic, another ex-communist central European state, initially accepted 12 people but has since said it would not welcome more. "I regret to see that, despite our repeated calls to pledge to relocate, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland have not yet taken the necessary action," the EU's migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told a news conference. He said the Commission was therefore launching so-called infringement procedures against the three, a way for the executive arm to take to task countries that fail to meet their obligations. It opens the way for months, even years, of legal wrangling before a top EU court could potentially impose fines. "From the political point of view, this action ... unnecessarily heats up political tensions, of which there are already too many in the European Union," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski told state TV on Tuesday. "If necessary, Poland is ready to defend its legal arguments in court." Photo. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |