Angered over EU migrant rules, Poland and Hungary veto a summit statement in a gesture of protest

By LORNE COOK
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Hungary and Poland have vetoed a statement by European Union leaders laying out their migration priorities in a symbolic gesture of protest. The two anti-migrant governments took the action on Friday because they were angry at being outvoted on a landmark deal to reform EU asylum rules. The move has no direct impact on EU migration policies, but it is an embarrassing public display of the bloc’s disunity. European Council President Charles Michel issued his own statement saying the two countries “considered that they were not in a position to validate” a joint document. Most leaders declined to criticize them publicly. Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the EU wants “to require us to build migrant ghettos in Hungary.”