The EU is considering a plan to abandon the idea of imposing national refugee quotas on member states.
As the block attempts to change the asylum and migration rules after more than four years of deadlock, a new plan ditches the mandatory relocation of refugees to member states. They will instead be allowed to freely choose whether or not to take to accept refugees, or take charge of returning those denied asylum to their home countries.
EU plans to ditch the mandatory relocation of refugees
The EU officials think giving incentives to member states to take in refugees may be more effective. They in fact plan to offer member states €10,000 (£9,192) for each adult, funded from the EU budget.
Those who want may take the money and host refugees. However, no member state will be obliged to do so.
This plan will certainly leave the duty of hosting refugees and migrants to border countries like Italy and Greece.
Migration being a sensitive issue which most often makes people lose elections, politicians in other countries will not be willing to accept to host refugees in exchange for money.
Italy and Greece to become EU’s refugee camps
Border countries will eventually end up becoming the EU’s Turkey where all refugees will have to be hosted.
And without the rule imposing quotas on all countries, it will be impossible for countries like Italy and Greece to ask the others to help when they will be overwhelmed by refugees and undocumented migrants desperate to get into Europe.
Solidarity à la carte
The new system which the Guardian has termed “solidarity à la carte” is intended to break the stalemate that has reigned since 2015, when the EU forced through mandatory refugee quotas at the height of the migration crisis via a qualified-majority vote.
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We are proposing today a European solution, to rebuild trust between Member States and to restore citizens’ confidence in our capacity to manage migration as a Union. The EU has already proven in other areas that it can take extraordinary steps to reconcile diverging perspectives. We have created a complex internal market, a common currency and an unprecedented recovery plan to rebuild our economies. It is now time to rise to the challenge to manage migration jointly, with the right balance between solidarity and responsibility.”