Refugee crisis frays ties between Berlin and east EU

For years, Germany could rely on the EU’s central European states and they on Germany. But that mutual trust is being undermined by Europe’s refugee crisis, with Berlin’s backing for the redistribution of asylum seekers around the EU running into unprecedented opposition in central Europe.

EU interior ministers forced through the refugee scheme last week, despite the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania voting against it. Poland had earlier accepted the proposals only reluctantly, and the Baltic states also had serious doubts.

The resulting tensions could influence everything from future EU budgets to relations with Russia..............

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