“Europe is the baker on Kos who offers bread to hungry refugees; Europe is the people who welcome refugees at the Munich train station,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, addressing the European Parliament.
In his first annual State of the Union address on Wednesday, Juncker stressed the gravity of the refugee issue by saying it is the worst refugee crisis since World War II. He made proposals for tackling the problem and called on the European Union to take courageous and decisive steps to resolve the problem.
“The numbers are impressive; 500,000 people are at Europe’s doorstep, but this is no time for fear. It is time for bold, concerted action… The European Union needs more Europe and more Unity,” Juncker said.
“When we are dealing with refugees, we don’t see religion, faith, or philosophy. We make no discriminations,” he added.
We must not leave Greece, Italy and Hungary alone
Juncker presented the Commission‘s plan to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece, Italy and Hungary to other EU member states.
“We must not leave Greece, Italy and Hungary alone to deal with this challenge,” he said characteristically. He stressed, however, that the relocation will be imposed because some member states have not shown the appropriate level of solidarity.
The EC is also proposing a permanent relocation mechanism to help tackle future refugee emergencies and that refugees should be allowed to work
Juncker also proposed that the numbers distributed to each country would depend on GDP, population, unemployment rate and asylum applications already processed. Countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.
Germany, the main destination for many migrants, supports quotas, but the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania have opposed the idea of mandatory quotas.
The proposals will be discussed by EU home affairs ministers on September 14 in Brussels.
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