EU president Juncker demands ‘compulsory’ relocation of 160,000 refugees

A “bold and determined” plan to share tens of thousands of refugees among European nations has been unveiled by the President of the European Commission. In an impassioned inaugural State of the Union speech in Strasbourg, Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a refugee quota system to share the burden of the biggest movement of people into Europe since World War II. He called on EU member states to accept and fairly distribute a further 120,000 people, building on a proposal to relocate 40,000 people which was unveiled in May. Britain will not be bound by the scheme, while several other European nations have already expressed their opposition to a quota.

This has to be done in a compulsory way… 160,000 that is the number. I hope that this time everyone will be on board. No rhetoric, action is what is needed.

State of the Union speech in Strasbourg, Jean-Claude Juncker

The European Commission, which is the EU’s executive body, had previously proposed sharing out 40,000 refugees but this was rejected by a number of members. Under the new quota plan, Germany will take in more than 40,000 and France will take 30,000 from a total of 160,000 which it says need to be relocated from Italy, Greece and Hungary which, as “EU frontier” nations have borne the brunt of the influx to date. At times hitting his fist against the lectern, Mr Juncker said Europe had “clearly under-delivered” its bid to find a unified response to the crisis. He applauded Syria’s neighbours for their handling of the crisis and said “frontier” European countries like Hungary, Italy and Greece could not be left alone to cope.

Winter is approaching, do we really want families sleeping in railway stations, in tents on cold nights? There is no religion, no belief no philosophy when it comes to refugees.

Jean-Claude Juncker

Europe Juncker