Divided European leaders meet to devise plan to tackle refugee crisis

European heads of government are meeting in Brussels to try to hatch a common plan on refugees following months of recriminations and amid a sense of spiralling momentum of which the leaders have lost control.
The emergency E.U. summit on Wednesday pitted the governments of central Europe against Germany and France after Berlin and Paris forced a new system of imposed refugee quotas on a recalcitrant east on Tuesday. There was talk of boycotts and threats to take the issue to court from the Czechs and Slovaks who were outvoted on Tuesday, while the E.U.’s most robust anti-immigration hardliner, Viktor Orban of Hungary, warned Chancellor Angela Merkel against any ‘moral imperialism’ at the summit.
‘We have reached a critical point where we need to end the cycle of mutual recriminations and misunderstandings,’ said Donald Tusk, the president of the European council who chaired the summit. ‘Our debate must be based on facts, not illusions and emotions.’
The Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and Romanians are deeply indignant at being outvoted on one of the biggest and most toxic issues in national politics anywhere in Europe.

This post was published at The Guardian