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Englishman Benjamin Tallis heads the Centre for European Security at Prague’s Institute of International Relations. An expert on European affairs, including the EU’s border-free Schengen zone, he is also the editor-in-chief of the IIR’s recently rebooted academic journal New Perspectives. When we spoke at the think tank’s offices at the foot of Nerudova St., our conversation took in various aspects of Czech foreign policy. But I first asked Tallis how he had ended up in Prague.

The Czech government meeting Monday agreed on the line that minister of interior, Milan Chovanec, should take when EU minister meet again on Thursday to discuss the immigrant crisis. The Czech News Agency reported that Chovanec will call for a reform of the EU’s visa policy and list of safe countries of origin and push for specific steps to strengthen the EU’s exterior Schengen borders. At the same time, Chovanec will resist any pressure for a permanent mechanism to share out immigrants between EU countries. Thursday’s meeting of interior ministers is taking place in Luxembourg.

President Miloš Zeman has expressed support for Slovak Premier Robert Fico for taking a tough stand on mandatory migrant quotas, calling the prime minister on Friday, the Castle press office confirmed. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania all voted against at a recent summit of EU interior ministers but only Slovakia has said it will take the matter to court. The Czech government has opted to respect the results of the vote on Tuesday, saying it would not pursue legal action.

Former Czech president Václav Klaus has said he will consult with parliamentary parties and others to sound out whether there is a political will to push for a referendum on the EU’s mandatory quotas. The former head-of-state said he is convinced the current government has no mandate to enforce them. The Czech Republic, along with two other Visegrad Four countries and Romania opposed EU quotas, but was outvoted at summit of EU interior ministers this week. Mr Klaus has warned that the mandatory acceptance of refugees will fundamentally change security within the Czech Republic as well as the country's "character". A petition against migration launched not long ago by Mr Klaus has gotten almost 100,000 signatures.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has said the Czech Republic is ready to take part in the establishment of a joint EU border patrol to protect the alliance’s outer borders. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Mr. Sobotka said the Czech Republic welcomed the initiative discussed at Wednesday’s summit of EU leaders and was ready to contribute soldiers or police officers, depending on what was required. The Czech Republic has long called for joint EU action in safeguarding the EU’s outer borders, saying the task could not be left to the buffer states alone.

The Czech Republic currently has 680 vacancies in its facilities for migrants and another 400 should be made available in the near future, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec told the European Affairs Committee of the lower house on Thursday. There are presently close to 900 migrants in asylum centres and detention facilities around the country. The minister reiterated his concerns that the approval of quotas by EU interior ministers could trigger a fresh wave of asylum seekers to Europe in the spring of next year.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka stressed the continuing relevance of the Višegrad Four regional cooperation late Wednesday. Arriving at an extraordinary EU summit on immigration in Brussels Mr. Sobotka said that the cooperation is meaningful in spite of occasional differences. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland have often been able to push through their stances when they act together, he added. The comments follows Poland’s split from the formerly united Višegrad Four stand against mandatory immigrant quotas on Tuesday. Minister of interior Milan Chovanec later said the regional cooperation faced “a short term end.”

For weeks the Visegrad Four countries – including the Czech Republic – were adamant they would oppose mandatory quotas but on Tuesday, Poland surprised its partners by completely changing course, voting with the majority of EU interior ministers in favour of the plan. I asked political analyst Jiří Pehe why most of the EU opposed the voluntary acceptance of refugees which had been pushed for by the former communist bloc countries.

The Czech Republic, flanked by a handful of other countries, was soundly defeated in a Brussels vote over the obligatory share out of refugees on Tuesday. But the Czech government is not taking the reversal sitting down. Prague is now pressing for practical steps to address the current crisis.

The decision by EU interior ministers to allocate migrants to individual member states based on mandatory quotas is binding for the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said after the government’s meeting on Wednesday, adding that the decision was a result of a naïve approach to the solution of the migrant crisis. The Czech Prime Minister said he won’t oppose the decision at the EU summit meeting on Wednesday evening, because there was no sense in escalating the tension in the European Union, adding that Europe must not disintegrate over the solution to the migrant crisis.