Luxembourg, 09/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU home affairs ministers, meeting in Brussels on Thursday 9 July, were still trying late in the day to reach agreement on how to share out 60,000 refugees and asylum seekers - that is to say, 40,000 people under the relocation scheme and 20,000 people as part of the voluntary resettlement programme - among their countries. As we went to press, the 40,000 goal had still to be reached. While pledges exceeded the 20,000 people for resettlement, “we haven't yet made it on relocation”, conceded German Home Affairs Minister Thomas de Maizière.
On the sidelines of a press briefing with his French opposite number, Bernard Cazeneuve, the German minister made official Germany's pledge to take a little over 3,000 people for resettlement and to relocate more than 9,000 people from Italy and Greece over two years.
This is in line with the percentages set out by the Commission in its legislative proposals on 27 May. The French home affairs minister indicated that France would take in 2,375 people for resettlement and 6,752 for relocation. “There's no reason not to accept these proposals”, commented Cazeneuve, these numbers again being in line with the percentages set by the Commission.
The two ministers expressed confidence that agreement would be reached on sharing the 40,000 people among the EU states, “maybe this evening, at the end of the week or at the end of the month”, said Cazeneuve. The German minister said that some countries continued to have concerns, for example, over secondary influxes, and that some member states had given figures “below and others above” initial numbers.
Some sources revealed that the vast majority of member states concerned by the scheme had made quantified pledges, the notable exceptions being Austria and Spain (the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Greece are not involved). In an effort to provide some succour to Italy and Greece which have faced strong migratory pressure since the start of 2015, the European Commission proposed at the end of May to distribute 40,000 people who are presently in the EU and to resettle 20,000 refugees currently outside the EU.
The Commission, however, found itself at odds with the member states when it proposed set allocation criteria. Arriving in Luxembourg on Thursday, Spanish Home Affairs Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz repeated his reservations over the scheme, indicating that he would not put forward a quantified commitment on 9 July but would wait until the end of the month, in order to take time to assess Spain's capacity to receive refugees and asylum seekers. The minister challenged the numbers allocated by the Commission - 4,288 asylum seekers, the EFE news agency reports. “We cannot take 10% of the total number”, the minister stated (our translation throughout). EUROPE will return to this issue. (Solenn Paulic)