BUDAPEST: Leading opponents of EU migration plans Hungary and Poland on Monday announced the setting up of a think-tank to counter "mainstream liberal" ideas they say dominate in Brussels. Their governments have long been at loggerheads with the European Union over democracy issues and immigration.

The new body will examine if "double standards" are being applied to Budapest and Warsaw, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a press conference in Budapest with Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau. Both countries have threatened to block the EU's coronavirus relaunch plan if rule of law conditions are attached, as demanded by the European parliament.

The new and as yet unnamed institute will "gather legal knowledge...to challenge the liberal ideological suppression of views," according to Szijjarto.

The EU Parliament is due to discuss a report on the rule of law in the two Central European members, but Szijjarto said he expected the report to be little more than a "political statement". Because of their "patriotic" policies, "which clearly place national interests at the forefront and rest on Christian foundations" both countries are "often unpalatable for the international liberal mainstream", Szijjarto said.

He made clear Warsaw and Budapest reject the EU's proposed migration and asylum policy reforms unveiled last week by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The commission's plan was a "pro-migration, immigration-triggering document" that "threatens to launch more and more migration waves," he said.