EUROPE-MIGRANTS/EU EU migration chief disappointed by lack of support for relocation plan

Record ID: 141134

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/EU EU migration chief disappointed by lack of support for relocation plan
  • Date: 15th September 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (FILE) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1WNO6K40RG3BAWZJA6G2T3ZKX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos expressed his disappointment on Tuesday (September 15) after European ministers failed to agree on sharing responsibility for sheltering asylum seekers.
    Avramopoulos spoke at a European Parliament hearing on migration in Brussels alongside EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres after Monday's meeting of Justice and Home Affairs ministers came to an end with no clear agreement.
    Determined opposition from a core of ex-Communist eastern states blocked efforts by Germany and France to secure agreement for a proposal by the EU executive to relocate 120,000 people from frontier countries according to mandatory national quotas.
    "I was expecting more support on behalf of all member states. Yes, the majority was very helpful, they contributed. We have positive results, but I was not happy to see some countries thinking rather in a national than in a European way," he said.
    EU countries are bitterly divided on how to handle the crisis, most notably between the wealthy west and poorer east, led by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose government has fenced off its EU border with Serbia.
    Guterres urged Europe to be more welcoming towards refugees fleeing wartorn countries.
    "A Europe welcoming Syrians is something that helps to defeat the Islamic State. A Europe rejecting Syrians, especially because if they are Muslims, is something that helps the propaganda of the Islamic State. We need to be aware of this and this is a very central battle in what is happening today in our world and is directly linked to our own global security in Europe," he said.
    Alongside tough debates on how to relocate migrants and refugees, Mogherini highlighted the lack of support from a large majority of the bloc for an EU trust fund to aid refugees in Syria. The EU has so far contributed 41 million euros to the fund, but it is also dependent on member state contributions.
    "Germany is contributing by five million euros, Italy is contributing by three million euros, and that's it. And that's it. So I am very glad that member states indicate the need to increase significantly the funds and I expect them to take the consequent decisions. The trust fund is open for contributions, and it's waiting for contributions. We have to start being coherent, if we use certain words, then we have to take their consequent political decisions. That's a must," Mogherini said to applause.
    Also present at the hearing was aunt of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, Tima Kurdi, who is on a visit to Brussels to urge Europe's politicians to do more to deal with the people fleeing war and oppression in the Middle East and Africa.
    An estimated 3,840 migrants have drowned this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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