Prime Minister Matteo Renzi threatened to block funds that the EU provides to countries unless those countries assist in the relocation of migrants.
Renzi has frequently criticised the clear lack of European solidarity in confronting the migrant crisis and blasted central European nations that closed their borders and refused to accept asylum seekers.
He said on Tuesday that “Italy cannot take another year like the one we have just had”. In the past three years, Italy and Greece have taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants who managed to reach their shores.
"We give €20 billion to Europe so that we can get back 12 - and if Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia want to preach at us about immigrants, allow Italy to say that the system is no longer working," Renzi told state television RAI.
Asked if he would use Italy’s veto to bar EU disbursements, his reply was “Yes, absolutely”.
"If you build walls against immigrants, you can forget about seeing Italian money. If the immigrants don't go there, the money won't go there either," he said.
Italy received 155,000 people so far this year, including 6,000 sea rescues it had to conduct last weekend alone and an additional 500 people rescued by the Italian coastguard from four different inflatable boats on Tuesday.
The country has been straining to cope with the numbers and the necessary funding for rescue operations and migrant shelter, food, and processing.
Meanwhile, the European Commission had begun demanding “clarifications” on Italy’s 2017 national budget which includes nearly €4 billion for migrant care.
"The clarifications demanded are linked to exceptional expenditure for the earthquake and over immigration," Italian finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Tuesday.
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