France, Germany raise concerns over EU plan to redistribute migrants

PanARMENIAN.Net - France and Germany raised concerns on Monday, June 1, over a European Commission plan to redistribute migrants reaching Italy and Greece, saying it must take better account of efforts they have already taken to receive asylum-seekers.

The European Commission proposed last week to share out 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean migrants reaching Italy and Greece to other European Union member countries, with Germany and France in line to take nearly 40 percent of the migrants between them.

The interior ministers of France and Germany said in a joint statement they were ready to study the Commission's proposal, based on a fair distribution of migrants.

"This temporary relocalization mechanism must be founded on two principles of equal importance: responsibility and solidarity. We believe that the balance between these two principles has not yet been reached in the proposal presented by the Commission," they said.