EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has unveiled "bold" plans to force the 28-member bloc to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from overstretched border states.
PHOTO: European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker announces plans for refugees quotas in his State of the Union address.
In his first EU State of the Union speech to the European Parliament, Mr Juncker urged Europe to look to its history and not be afraid of his proposals for compulsory quotas for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and elsewhere.His comments came after Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced plans to "move quickly" to accept an extra 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq, and confirmed Australia would bomb Islamic State terrorist group targets in Syria.
"Now is not the time to take fright, it is time for bold, determined action for the European Union," Mr Juncker said in a marathon 80-minute speech in Strasbourg.
"It is 160,000 that Europe has to take into their arms, this has to be done in a compulsory way. I call on the council to agree to take 160,000 at the interior ministers' meeting on September 14."
Mr Juncker was referring to a new scheme for binding quotas for the emergency relocation of 120,000 people from Italy, Greece and Hungary, combined with a similar scheme for 40,000 refugees in Italy and Greece that he unveiled in May.
He warned EU member states against making religious distinctions when deciding to admit asylum seekers, and recalled Europe's past of religious persecution.
"There is no religion, there is no belief, there is no philosophy when it comes to refugees," the former Luxembourg prime minister said. "We don't distinguish."
He was heckled by Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, who said most of those arriving were economic migrants and the EU should emulate Australia's "stop the boats" policy to halt a flow of "biblical proportions".
Analysis from The Drum
The asylum seekers' plight has touched hearts around the world, spurred especially by pictures last week of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, whoselifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach.
German chancellor Angela Merkel - whose country expects 800,000 asylum claims this year and has said it could take half a million annually over several years - urged Europe to go further, claiming binding quotas were the only way to ensure a "fair" and proportionate sharing of the burden.
"We need a binding agreement on the binding distribution of refugees according to fair criteria between member states," Ms Merkel told the German parliament.
"We cannot just fix a ceiling and say I don't care about anything above that."
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