The EU’s Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has said that the EU is ready to discuss new ways of admitting asylum seekers to the EU and distributing them across EU member states.
Online publisher EUBusiness.com reports that the plan will include steps aimed at “a better sharing of responsibility and solidarity” within the EU,
to address the issue of growing numbers of migrants arriving on Italy’s and Greece’s shorelines.
It is estimated that more than 5,000 new migrants have arrived in Italy over the last few days – and last week the EU asked member states to accept 20,000 Syrian refugees from outside Europe, as well as processing 40,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea landing in Italy and Greece.
The UK government has already indicated that it would not accept any more migrants arriving in Greece and Italy from outside the EU.
The EU now says that distribution of migrants will be based on a number of factors, including a member state’s national economic output, population, unemployment rates – and the number of refugees already admitted to an individual country.
Germany, France and the UK are popular choices for many migrants. However, on Monday (01/06/15), France and Germany made a joint call to the EU to revise its plan, saying there was insufficient “balance” – and that efforts by countries in welcoming asylum seekers should be “better taken into account”.
Speaking at a meeting of interior ministers from six EU countries in Moritzburg, near Dresden, east Germany, Mr Avramopoulos defended the proposed figures, however.
“I would like to point out that the proposed resettlement of 20,000 refugees from third countries – and the relocation of 40,000 asylum seekers throughout the EU – is quite reasonable; especially when we consider that just in the last few days, over 6,000 migrants arrived in the EU.”
Mr Avromopoulos conceded that more discussion would be needed on “the resettlement and relocation schemes – and the distribution key used to determine the extent of responsibility-sharing for each member state”.
“We are, of course, willing to discuss with member states the modalities of implementation of the mechanisms to ensure a fair distribution of asylum seekers within the European Union,” he said.
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