ROME: European Union states who fail to take in their fair share of refugees should be dealt cuts to their funding from the bloc's budget, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday.
"Italy really must push for a very hard line against countries that have received a lot of funds and are dodging their formal commitments on refugee relocation," Renzi told Italy's parliament.
He made the remarks in a speech on EU policy ahead of an EU summit on October 20-21.
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are refusing to cooperate with a mandatory quota system agreed by a majority of EU ministers at an emergency summit in September last year.
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania voted against the plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from Greece and Italy over two-year period, but they were overruled.