The European Commission is refusing to state how big the influx of migrants has to be before it triggers the solidarity mechanism obliging burden sharing among the 27 member states.

Sources told timesofmalta.com that the Commission told EU Home Affairs Ministers this morning that the Temporary Protection Directive – put in place in 2001 for the Kosovo crisis but never put into practice – cannot be activated “just for Malta” as the rules state that this can only be done in case of a massive influx which effects the whole EU.

“This means that we need to have the displacement of hundreds of thousands of migrants and not just 1,000 people as it is the case currently in Malta,” the sources said.

Admitting that Malta, because it is small, has “a real big problem” with just a thousand migrants, the sources said that the Commission is trying to persuade the other member states to take some of Malta’s migrants on a bilateral and voluntary basis.

“This is the best way in the circumstances to help Malta,” the sources said.

Malta and Italy have last week requested the Commission to trigger the temporary protection directive.

Germany, France and the UK said, however, that “there is no emergency” to justify the activation of this directive.