Slova-kia said on Wednesday it had mounted a legal challenge to the EU’s plan to distribute 160,000 asylum-seekers among member-states under a quota system. “The Slovak republic has officially filed a lawsuit against the Council of the European Union, to the highest court ... in Luxembourg,” leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said.

The suit challenges “so-called mandatory quotas” on refugee re-location adopted by the EU in September, he said.

The European Court of Justice adjudicates in disputes over how EU law is interpreted and applied.“We demand that the court annul this decision, pronounce it invalid and require the Council to pay the costs of legal proceedings,” Mr Fico said Wedn-esday. Under the EU’s quota system, Bratislava is expected to take in just under 2,300 migrants.Mr Fico slammed the quota programme as a “total fiasco”.