GETTY Hungary would be one of the countries affected by the proposal

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Furious MEPs have proposed adding a radical new stick with which to beat countries who fail to show “solidarity” in the battle to finally bring Europe’s migrant chaos under control. But Eastern European members are likely to react with outrage to the controversial solution, which would cost them hundreds of millions of pounds a year in development funding. And it would be a risky move at a time of growing euroscepticism across the continent, with anti-Brussels parties on the march and migration an increasingly contentious issue with voters.

In a sign of the tensions the plan could inflame, one outraged Polish MEP blasted it as “illegal” and defiantly told other members of the parliament: “We will not give it [the money] to you.” Under proposals put before the European Parliament yesterday any EU state which refuses to accept migrants under the Brussels quota scheme would automatically have 10 per cent of development cash cut. The figure would be deducted from Social Cohesion Fund payouts, which go to the bloc’s 15 poorest nations are are designed to slowly reduce economic inequality across the continent.

EbS The proposal was put forward by Belgian MEP Gérard Deprez

EbS But Poland's Jan Olbrycht said his country would not accept such penalties

Four of the fund’s biggest recipients - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - have refused to acknowledge migrant quotas and are locked in a legal battle with Brussels over their imposition. Under the proposed scheme any freezes in the payouts would have to be voted through annually by the European Parliament and the EU Council, but would only require a two-thirds majority of member states to prevent a bloc veto. Poland would be the biggest loser from any penalties to the tune of £280 million a year, whilst the Czech Republic would lose £76 million annually, Hungary £73 million and Slovakia £50 million. The plan was put before the EU Parliament’s budget committee yesterday by Belgian MEP Gérard Deprez, who told members desperate times call for desperate measures. He said: “I think the solution of automatically withholding monies due is more effective and simpler to manage than a penalty or fines system, because with the fine system you would have to enforce it and get the country to cough up.” He added that any cash saved by the programme would be channeled back via a Dublin agreement fund towards helping member states who had taken in their share of migrants with reception costs.

We will not give it [the money] to you Polish MEP Jan Olbrycht

But the plan was given a cautious welcome by other political groupings on the committee, who applauded the intention to enforce the principle of solidarity but suggested other mechanism may work better. In particular MEPs raised concerns that targeting the Social Cohesion Fund would pick on poorer Eastern European states and would allow some western countries, which do not receive payouts, to shirk their responsibilities. German MEP Monika Hohlmeier said: “We’ve had it for 15 years and we’ve been talking about it for seven years and member states have refused any solution to amending Dublin even though they say that it goes in the wrong direction. “It’s actually undermining the EU as a whole. It’s leading to damnation and we aren’t solving the migration problem and that means the member states are rowing more and more often and disagreeing more and more often, so it has a devastating and destructive effect. “We can’t have a situation where one part of the member states are shouldering the responsibility, a third is trying to help and then the final third of the countries is doing nothing at all.”

Migrants clash with police across Europe Wed, February 15, 2017 Migrants clash with each other in over crowded camps across Europe. Play slideshow EPA 1 of 107 Moroccan Police look at immigrants trying to jump the six-meter-high fence in Ceuta, Spanish enclave on the north of Africa, 09 December 2016.