European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker wants a system of quotas for a fairer
sharing of the burden of hosting migrants among EU member
States, EC spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said Monday.
"Juncker said what he wants to do with the agenda on
migration in his (April 29) speech at the European Parliament,"
Bertaud said.
"Reinforcing (border agency) Frontex for search and
rescue, hitting the traffickers, introducing a system of quotas
for the redistribution of asylum-seekers in the EU and for the
resettlement of those from outside the EU who need protection,
and the opening of legal channels for qualified migrants".
In his speech to the European Parliament, Juncker had
blasted the response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis that
came out of an extraordinary EU summit the previous week as
"insufficient".
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has lobbied for that summit
after a migrant-boat accident in which over 700 people are
feared to have died - the latest in a long series of such
disasters amid a big increase in the flow of migrants from North
Africa to southern Europe.
Italy has been shouldering much of the burden of handling
the migrants and the government has repeatedly called on the EU
to do more.
At the summit, EU leaders agreed to triple funding for
Mediterranean rescue operations, but there was no consensus on
fairer sharing of the migrants that arrive.
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