"Europe is gradually adopting Poland and the Czech Republic's view on migration," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said after meeting his Polish counterpart in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary on Friday.
Common point of view
"The whole of Europe changes step-by-step its point of view on migration in our favour because the solution (to the migrant crisis) we have offered for several years already is being realised," said Czech PM.
"I think we have (with Poland) a common point of view on the European budget, cohesion of agriculture and on drawing the EU funds," he added.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the two countries, who have resisted calls from Berlin and Brussels to distribute quotas of migrants across European Union member states, could be sure that the countries could not be "forced" to receive refugees.
"I can say that the very concrete and unequivocal stand of the Prime Minister (Babis) enabled us to get to the point where we can be sure that from now on no one will force us to receive refugees and that the conclusions on the Dublin system must be unanimous," said Morawiecki.
"We also spoke about cooperation in the fields of energy and infrastructure but also about the immigration issues and refugees at the last EU summit," added the Polish PM.
Tough decision
EU leaders on claimed success in reaching a hard-fought agreement at a summit last week to control immigration but it faced instant criticism as vague, hard to implement and a potential threat to human rights.
They agreed to tighten further the EU's external borders and spend more money on projects in Africa intended to deter migration.
The summit agreed any relocation of people across the bloc would only be voluntary, a welcome breakthrough for the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as other eastern members.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters, PAP/EPA