Germany and France yesterday fired a joint warning shot that could sink the EU migration plan announced last week.
In a statement, the home affairs ministers of the two largest EU member states raised concerns about the plan and called for a revision of the mechanism used to distribute migrants among the participating countries.
While willing to study the European Commission’s proposal, Germany and France insisted it had to be based on the fair sharing of migrants.
“This distribution [mechanism] must, above all, take better account of the efforts already made by member states on international protection,” Bernard Cazeneuve and Thomas de Maiziere said.
They insisted the emergency mechanism “must be founded on two equally important principles: responsibility and solidarity. We believe that the balance between these two principles has not yet been reached in the proposal presented by the Commission.”
This distribution [mechanism] must, above all, take better account of the efforts already made by member states on international protection
In an unprecedented move, Brussels last week issued a proposal forcing the burden sharing of about 40,000 Eritreans and Somalis from Italy and Greece to other member states, including Malta.
The Commission is proposing to trigger an emergency mechanism clause in the EU treaties in favour of Greece and Italy, forcing members to receive about 40,000 asylum seekers from both countries over the next two years.
The Commission did not propose the same mechanism for Malta as it did for Greece and Italy arguing that the island was not facing the same problems. Under the distribution mechanism, based on various criteria including size of population, the economy, unemployment and the number of asylum applications received over the past five years, France and Germany were assigned the largest numbers of migrants to be relocated: France being allocated over 6,700 migrants and Germany having to take almost 8,800.
Malta will have to take just under 300 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece.
Reacting to the Franco-German concerns, the Commission yesterday said it welcomed the fact that the two countries wanted to discuss the plans but did not give any revision assurances.
Apart from Germany and France, a number of other countries have already expressed their concern, particularly with regard to forced burden sharing. Spain, Belgium and another six counties, mostly from Eastern Europe, are said to be opposing the plan.
On the other hand, Malta has already declared its full support.
Discussions are expected to continue until the middle of this month when EU home affairs ministers are expected to meet and make a final decision. If agreement is not reached, the plan will go in front of EU leaders at their end of June summit.
The agreement is earmarked to enter into force on July 1.