A brave step forward: The EU was right to push through a quota system for accepting refugees, but it will worsen Europe’s divisions

A moment of relief, at last, in the gathering fury of the refugee crisis. Progress has been a long time coming, but the decision by EU interior ministers to push through a quota system counts as a step – and an important one – in the right direction. It will relieve the vastly overburdened Italy and Greece, speed up the asylum process for a total of 120,000 Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans, and establish a framework through which Europe can begin to manage a crisis it has so far met with bluster and backsliding.

With 350,000 migrants and asylum-seekers entering the EU so far this year, though, the quota number will not in itself solve, or even greatly allay, the continent’s troubles. But it is a start, and the principle of co-operation may count for more than the practicalities at this stage.

The relief, however, can last no more than a moment. For in moving to meet the humanitarian challenge, the fabric of the European Union has started to unravel. The decision in Brussels involved no consensus, as is typically the case when controversial matters come up for discussion. Instead, the quota was forced through with a “qualified majority”, despite fierce opposition from four Eastern European nations. Such are the risks of delay that it was right for the EU to use any means available. But the stage has been set for further conflict, if not outright refusal to comply, as the Prime Minister of Slovakia claimed he would so long as he stays in office.

Xenophobic, no doubt, in part, the objections to a quota nevertheless deserve to be heard, bespeaking as they do a growing schism between Europe’s core and peripheral nations. It will indeed be hard to keep successful asylum-seekers in the Eastern European nations they may be allocated to, although that risk can be mitigated by only allowing benefits, including housing, to be claimed in that state.

Quite simply, the objections from Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania relate to the limits of European solidarity. These nations were sold membership of the EU insofar as it would boost their GDP, and so signed up to further their national interest and little else. They have reaped the rewards of membership, both through economic growth and the ability of citizens to travel freely through Europe for work. Many received aid, largely German in origin, to smooth their entry. The possibility of any renouncing membership over a smattering of refugees (before the commitment was watered down, the Czech Republic had been asked to take in 3,000) is remote.

But what may occur is an exacerbation of the divides that became obvious in the Greek crisis, between Germany – as ever, calling the shots – and the poorer nations who feel they are sacrificing too much sovereignty at the behest of Angela Merkel.

The rise of right-wing, anti-European parties in these nations, sure to be boosted by the quota’s imposition, will increase isolationism. Britain – which, unlike Denmark and Ireland, will exercise its opt-out to the quota – is likely to join the Eastern European nations in a rancorous outer conglomerate of EU states, leaving the direction of the Union ever more in the hands of Germany.

The continent faces a perilous future. Many more asylum-seekers will arrive on its shores; the issue of Greek debt has not been resolved; and more financial crises will develop, so long as the contradictions in a monetary union with such loose fiscal ties remain as stark as they are. Those who support a reformed EU – and this newspaper is one – will be watching through their fingers.