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Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, who together make up the influential Visegrad group, issued a blistering statement accusing eurocrats of trying to bully them into submission. The four are furious at suggestions in Brussels that their aid funding could be cut if they persist with their refusal to accept asylum seekers under the bloc’s mandatory relocation scheme.

GETTY The leaders of the Visegrad countries have launched a furious attack on Brussels

Their outburst comes after neighbour Austria provoked a furious response from eurocrats by announcing plans to pull out of the quota system altogether, a move EU officials said would be illegal. The two ballooning rows demonstrate the extent to which migration policy remains a hugely divisive issue in Europe, with precious few member states prepared to open their doors and come to Germany’s aid.

GETTY The four states said they would not be 'blackmailed' over migrant quotas

GETTY Brussels has threatened to pull their funding over the issue

Last year EU leaders agreed via a controversial majority vote to set up a refugee quota system, under which all member states are obliged to take in a set number of people arriving in Europe. The move was fiercely opposed by many Eastern European countries at the time and the battle has raged on ever since, with many member states refusing to take any of their allocation. Exasperated officials and MEPs, who are desperate to put in place an EU-wide migration system which will reduce the burden on Germany, have now floated the idea of cutting their social funding in retaliation. But in response the leaders of the Visegrad countries yesterday called an extraordinary press conference, during which they let rip at eurocrats over its meddling in their migration policies.

We will never accept blackmail and diktat Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło, who is also waging an extraordinary diplomatic war with the EU over the re-election of Donald Tusk, said Eastern Europe will “will never accept blackmail and diktat” from Brussels. Standing next to her, the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka made it clear that all four countries “oppose linking the debate about migration to European funds”. And Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico fumed: “This is blackmail that we reject in the name of the Slovak government.” Hugary’s firebrand PM, Viktor Orban, revealed that his country will now start detaining migrants on camps it has set up on its southern border with Serbia - a plan that has sparked dismay from human rights groups.

Powerful images as migrants protest in Hungary Tue, April 4, 2017 Migrants protest outside Budapest's Keleti Railway Station after it was closed off by police to prevent people travelling on to western Europe Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 53 A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannon on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke