This was European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s first State of the Union address made to the European Parliament, most of which was devoted to convincing the EU to have a united approach to manage the migration crisis.
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Most of the refugees land in Italy or Greece, and then head for the wealthier countries of northern Europe by transiting through countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, like Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary.
The figure of 120,000 is on top of a proposal by the European Commission in May to relocate 40,000 people in need of international protection from Italy and Greece.
“We are also in favour of introducing a European treasury…” He said that supporting the refugees is not only about humanity, but also about the unity of the bloc.
“They won’t be similar, so these zones will not be closed towards Serbia, we do not want to prevent in any way those who have come from there to return there”, Gulyas told a news conference.
“The relocation scheme can only succeed if it is accompanied by large-scale emergency reception, assistance and registration efforts in the countries most impacted by arrivals, particularly Greece, Hungary and Italy”, said spokesman William Spindler, adding that 200,000 places would be needed by the end of 2016. “I call on the (European) Council to agree to take 160,000 at the interior ministers’ meeting on September 14”, he said.
He said the European Union must be more assertive when it comes to ending the conflicts.
His position echoed that of Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, who also reiterated on Wednesday his stance against quotas but a readiness to participate in other forms of response to the crisis.
Mr Juncker opened his speech saying it was “not a time to take fright”.
“The list of safe countries is only a procedural simplification”, Juncker explained.
The situation was however calm and people were exhausted but “very happy to be in Austria“, said Christian Knopf, in charge of coordination. Over 176,000 have crossed into Hungary in 2015, most looking to move on to western Europe. “These two things are going together”.
Denmark will not take part in the distribution of the 160,000 asylum seekers proposed by the European Commission, Minister for Immigration, Integration and Housing Inger Stoejberg said here on Friday.
The potential for a military deployment has been condemned by human rights groups.
“I’m strongly in favor of allowing asylum seekers to work and to earn their own money when their asylum process is underway”.
“We have to defend the Schengen system, we must comply with those rules,” he said.
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The actual governments of the EU will probably not be as high-minded as the members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
