EU draws up new set of quotas forcing states to share burden

PanARMENIAN.Net - The EU executive has drawn up a new set of national quotas under which Germany will take in more than 40,000 and France 30,000 of a total of 160,000 asylum-seekers it says should be relocated from Italy, Greece and Hungary, an EU source said on Monday, September 7, according to Reuters.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to unveil new proposals on Wednesday. EU officials have said he will propose adding 120,000 people to be relocated on top of a group of 40,000 the Commission previously proposed relocating.

Poland has said it might handle about 2,000 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 12,000.

EU interior ministers will debate the Commission's proposals at an emergency meeting next Monday, September 7, in Brussels.

The 160,000 refugees would include 66,400 who have arrived in Greece, 54,000 who have arrived in Hungary and 39,600 who have arrived in Italy.

Hungary would also join Italy and Greece in being exempt from taking in a share of the refugees relocated under the system. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been a vocal opponent of national quotas.

Britain has an exemption from EU asylum policy, as do Ireland and Denmark.

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.

The following table shows the numbers of asylum-seekers each country would take, both from the proposal for the initial 40,000 in May and the latest proposal for an additional 120,000.