Migrant crisis: Jean-Claude
Juncker plans to compensate countries for each refugee taken in
European Commission president
will announce plans to give €6,000 for every refugee a country accepts
By Alice
Philipson, Rome
Jean Claude
Juncker insisted the crisis will not force leaders to “set aside Schengen,”
amid warnings the free movement zone is under pressure from the migratory flow
Jean-Claude
Juncker will this week attempt to overcome hostility from eastern Europe to a
programme of migrant distribution quotas by offering bounties worth thousands
of euros.
In a ‘State
of the Union’ address to the European Parliament – a speech modeled on that
delivered annually by the US president – the European Commission president is
expected to highlight compensation of €6,000 (£4,400) to be given for each
refugee a country accepts.
Countries
will be paid €500 in transport costs for every asylum seeker who arrives in
their country that needs to be relocated to an EU neighbour within the scheme.
Mr Juncker
– under fire for the EU’s response to the crisis - is expected to use the
address to build political support for a mandatory scheme to relocate some
160,000 refugees from Italy ,
Greece and Hungary
It is an
ambitious target: a similar plan for just 40,000 people had to be downgraded
from a mandatory to a voluntary scheme earlier this year after meeting with
objections from member states.
Mr Juncker
insisted the crisis will not force leaders to “set aside Schengen,” amid warnings
the free movement zone is under pressure from the migratory flow.
“The right
to free movement is an achievement of Europe
and it is untouchable. We must not jeopardise Schengen, just because some
member states violate European rules, and regard solidarity as fair-weather
word,” he told the Bild newspaper.
Werner
Faymann, the Austrian chancellor, on Sunday called for an emergency summit of
EU leaders to address the crisis.
Federica
Mogherini, the EU’s chief diplomat, said that the flow is “here to stay”, and
said those coming to Europe are refugees who
required legal protection.
That
contradicts the stance of eastern European countries which claim the incomers
are motivated by higher standards of living and are coming from states such as Pakistan and Mali
“It is
partially a migrant flow, but it is mainly a refugee flow, which puts us in a
different situation when it comes to our legal and moral duties,” said Mrs
Mogherini.
German
chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow thousands of migrants stranded in Hungary to enter Germany
Leaders of Bavaria
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