The outgoing Czech government has moved quickly to protect next year’s budget for refugee assistance. Speaking after the 12 November cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan confirmed that he has formally asked the European Commission to exempt the Czech Republic from making any cash contribution to the new EU Solidarity Mechanism that underpins the 2026 Migration Pact.
Rakušan’s argument is simple: with almost 400,000 Ukrainians still holding temporary-protection status in Czechia—roughly 4 % of the national population—the country meets the EU’s definition of a “member state under exceptional migratory pressure”. Under Article 79 of the Migration Pact, such countries can request a full or partial deduction of their levy for the following financial year. The Commission’s own monitoring report, released on 11 November, explicitly lists Czechia alongside Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Austria and Poland as eligible for relief.
![Czech Interior Minister Asks Brussels to Waive 2026 Migration-Pact Payments]()
If Brussels grants the request, Prague will avoid paying up to €20 million into the common fund that finances relocation of asylum-seekers and frontline-border support. Rakušan stressed, however, that Czechia will continue to contribute “in kind”—for example by sending equipment and officers to guard the EU’s external borders—thereby reinforcing the government’s long-standing position that solidarity should not automatically mean compulsory relocation quotas.
For global-mobility managers, the decision is significant in three ways. First, it signals that the future Czech administration—likely to be led by Andrej Babiš—will inherit a larger pot of domestic funds for integration programmes, work-permit processing and accommodation subsidies. Second, it underlines that Ukrainian holders of Czech temporary protection remain a priority constituency; companies employing them can expect continued fast-track access to labour offices and simplified residence renewals in 2026. Third, the move confirms that the EU Migration Pact will allow financial opt-outs rather than mandatory burden-sharing, an important precedent for other Central-European jurisdictions grappling with labour shortages yet wary of relocation schemes.
Practical takeaway: employers planning intra-EU assignments to Czechia should anticipate no new relocation quotas in 2026, but they can expect tighter controls on irregular entry at the external Schengen border as Prague boosts its “in-kind” contributions of equipment and personnel.
Rakušan’s argument is simple: with almost 400,000 Ukrainians still holding temporary-protection status in Czechia—roughly 4 % of the national population—the country meets the EU’s definition of a “member state under exceptional migratory pressure”. Under Article 79 of the Migration Pact, such countries can request a full or partial deduction of their levy for the following financial year. The Commission’s own monitoring report, released on 11 November, explicitly lists Czechia alongside Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Austria and Poland as eligible for relief.
If Brussels grants the request, Prague will avoid paying up to €20 million into the common fund that finances relocation of asylum-seekers and frontline-border support. Rakušan stressed, however, that Czechia will continue to contribute “in kind”—for example by sending equipment and officers to guard the EU’s external borders—thereby reinforcing the government’s long-standing position that solidarity should not automatically mean compulsory relocation quotas.
For global-mobility managers, the decision is significant in three ways. First, it signals that the future Czech administration—likely to be led by Andrej Babiš—will inherit a larger pot of domestic funds for integration programmes, work-permit processing and accommodation subsidies. Second, it underlines that Ukrainian holders of Czech temporary protection remain a priority constituency; companies employing them can expect continued fast-track access to labour offices and simplified residence renewals in 2026. Third, the move confirms that the EU Migration Pact will allow financial opt-outs rather than mandatory burden-sharing, an important precedent for other Central-European jurisdictions grappling with labour shortages yet wary of relocation schemes.
Practical takeaway: employers planning intra-EU assignments to Czechia should anticipate no new relocation quotas in 2026, but they can expect tighter controls on irregular entry at the external Schengen border as Prague boosts its “in-kind” contributions of equipment and personnel.
