EU ministers fail to reach unanimous refugee deal: official

EU interior ministers failed to reach unanimous agreement on Monday on a plan for binding quotas to relocate 120,000 refugees and take the strain off Greece, Italy, and Hungary, officials said.

 

 

“Yes, not everyone is on board at the moment,” Luxembourg minister Jean Asselborn told a press conference in Brussels after an emergency meeting.

 

 

He said however that there was a “large majority” in favour of the redistribution in principle, and they would return to the issue in October.

 

 

EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos added: “For our proposal on 120,000 we did not have the agreement we wanted.”

 

 

The ministers were discussing plans unveiled last week by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to redistribute 120,000 refugees from overstretched Greece, Italy and Hungary.

 

 

The plans face fierce opposition from many eastern European member states. Austria and Slovakia said earlier they were reinstating border controls Monday to cope with a flood of refugees, following a similar move by Germany, which warned it could face up to one million migrant arrivals this year.

 

 

Berlin’s shock move, which struck at the heart of the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone, had an immediate knock-on effect and ramped up the pressure on interior ministers holding crisis talks in Brussels later Monday.

 

 

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