PRAGUE, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Thursday that his country and Italy were preparing a joint project with which they could help migrants in the African country of Cote d'Ivoire.

Sobotka made the statement at a press conference after meeting his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni. When it came to migration, Cote d'Ivoire was one of the source countries, Sobotka said.

He said that Czech Republic was to contribute roughly one million euros (1.2 million U.S. dollars) to the project which will help improve living conditions of the people who would return from other countries to Cote d'Ivoire.

In cooperation with Italy, the money was to help refugees gain accommodation, health care and drinking water, and to help integrate into society, according to Sobotka.

Sobotka and Gentiloni admitted that the two countries had different views on the migrant crisis. The Czech Republic was against the redistribution of refugees, and it rejected the quota as not functioning.

The Czech government also disagreed with the criticism that Prague and several other EU countries were inconsistent over migration, Sobotka said, adding that it primarily wanted to solve the problem in their countries of origin.

Gentiloni said that all EU member states must respect Wednesday's decision of the European Court of Justice to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Slovakia and Hungary, which challenged a European Council decision of obligatory relocation of asylum seekers by quota among the member countries.

He said that the future of European integration cannot lie in someone being integrated or forced out, and there was no interest in fostering the idea of a division into the West and East of Europe.

Gentiloni was the first Italian prime minister to visit the Czech Republic over the past ten years.