Hungary defends vote on EU migrant quotas

Hungary says its planned referendum on EU-mandated migrant resettlement quotas will cover only future proposals, not a separate one-off quota decision, but it rejected criticism of the vote as coming from an "ivory tower" in Brussels.

Hungary has been at odds with the European Commission and some fellow EU countries over how to handle a large migrant influx into the bloc, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed a referendum on Wednesday to see whether Hungarians accepted the quotas, something his government firmly opposes.

The referendum plan may clash with an agreed EU-wide strategy to handle the refugee crisis, the European Commission said on Thursday.

A spokeswoman withheld further comment pending clarifications from Orban, who set no date for the vote.

Along with Slovakia, Hungary challenged in court a majority decision by EU governments in September to redistribute 160,000 migrants among member states over a period of two years according to one-off quotas.

Szijjarto said that move was "made with a disregard to EU rules".

"We do not think that matter is resolved because the European Court has yet to rule on it," Szijjarto told a news conference alongside Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak, another staunch foe of quotas and Hungary's partner in the European Court challenge.

"We think that decision, or move interpreted as a decision, is invalid," he said.

Szijjarto also rejected as anti-democratic criticism from Brussels, where diplomats have said Hungary's combative attitude and its referendum were "not helpful" to efforts to find a coordinated, EU-wide solution to the migrant crisis.

"Not helpful in what? Asking for people's opinions in an important matter does not help? I don't get this attitude," Szijjarto said.

"In the ivory tower of Brussels they may not like people expressing their views on important European matters but we think this is important enough that we don't decide without hearing what our voters have to say first."