The speech on the state of the European Union delivered yesterday morning before the European parliamentarians by the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, rises to the challenge represented by the arrival in Europe of several hundred thousand refugees.
The proposal from the European Commission is to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in Italy, Greece, and Hungary, based on a distribution key among member states. This number would be added to the 40,000 relocations already decided in July, bringing the overall target to 160,000.
The member states will decide on September 14 at the extraordinary “Justice and Home Affairs” Council on migration, primarily regarding the Commission’s proposal to adopt a regulation establishing a permanent relocation mechanism, and to implement a more structured system for the resettlement of refugees already recognized as such in first-reception countries.
Jean-Claude Juncker also asserted the necessity to open new legal access routes to European territory. These legal access routes primarily concern individuals in need of international protection, to prevent them from undertaking perilous exile journeys.
As for the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on a common list of “safe countries of origin” which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey, a regular review of the internal situation of each of these countries must at the very least be conducted.
