The EU executive has drawn up a new set of national quotas under which Germany will take in more than 40000 and France 30000 of a total of 160000 asylum-seekers it says should be relocated from Italy, Greece and Hungary, an EU source said yesterday.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to unveil new proposals tomorrow.
EU officials have said he will propose adding 120000 people to be relocated on top of a group of 40000 the commission previously proposed relocating.
Member states rejected such binding national quotas in June but since their voluntary offers have fallen short of 40000 while the numbers of people arriving in Europe has surged, the commission, backed by Germany and France, is pushing for them. While Germany has said it is willing to take in many refugees and President Francois Hollande confirmed France’s readiness yesterday to take in its share under the European Commission’s guidelines, the quotas could see renewed resistance from governments which say they cannot cope with such numbers.
Poland, for example, has said it might handle about 2000 people under proposed EU pilot schemes for easing pressure on southern frontier states.
But under the commission’s new proposal, Warsaw would be asked to receive close to 12000.
Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been a vocal opponent of national quotas, will in fact now see other EU states take in 54000 of those people who have surged into his country. Under an earlier proposal for the relocation of 40000 people, these would have come only from Italy and Greece.
Leading the quotas among the 120000, of which 50400 would come from Greece and 15600 from Italy, Germany would, if EU leaders agree the scheme, be asked to take in 31443 and France 24031.
Britain has an exemption from EU asylum policy, as do Ireland and Denmark. Dublin volunteered to take in 600 people under the earlier scheme to relocate 40000 asylum seekers.
The source said the commission also planned to put Turkey and all the non-EU states of the Western Balkans on a new list of “safe” countries, whose citizens would face accelerated reviews of asylum claims to speed deportation for most of them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday the record refugee influx to Europe’s biggest economy would change the country, which was now seen by many abroad as a place of “hope”.
“What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years,” she said after 20000 migrants arrived at the weekend alone.
Merkel said scenes of spontaneous solidarity from hundreds of Germans who greeted families fleeing wars in Syria and beyond at railway stations with gifts and welcome signs were “very moving” and “breathtaking”.
“That is something very valuable, especially in view of our history,” she said, expressing joy that “Germany has become a country that many people abroad associate with hope”.
She stressed that other EU countries must take in more migrants because “only with common European solidarity can we master this effort”.
Merkel called for a “solidarity-based and fair distribution of refugees” and said the “Europe based on values must show its face”.
Germany – which expects 800000 asylum requests this year, four times last year’s total – said her country could face costs of à10-billion (R155-billion) next year.
“That order of magnitude doesn’t seem implausible to me,” she said.
The ruling coalition has pledged an additional à6-billion (R93-billion) in federal funds for next year and said the rest of the money would come from states and communes. — Reuters-AFP