Refugees: MEPs deplore member states’ failure to act and call for solidarity

The failure so far of EU home affairs ministers to agree on how to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers was severely criticised by a large majority of MEPs during the plenary debate on the outcome of Monday's (14 September) Council meeting. They called on member states to stand together, take urgent action to tackle the current crisis, and build a European asylum and migration system that will work in the long term.

The debate was opened by Luxembourg's Immigration and Asylum Minister Jean Asselborn, European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans and Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos before MEPs took the floor.

On Thursday (17 September) at 10h the plenary will vote, as a matter of urgency, on the emergency scheme to relocate additional 120,000 asylum seekers, since under the rules Parliament must be consulted. After Parliament's vote, it will be up to member states to finalize the agreement for the mechanism to enter into force.

After consulting the European Parliament, the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council on Monday 14 September approved a decision to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece over two years. Ministers also agreed, but only "in principle", to relocate an additional 120,000 persons in need of international protection away "from any member states exposed to massive migratory flows" to other member states. The issue will be back on the agenda of the extraordinary JHA meeting on Tuesday 22 September.