Spotlight: Juncker proposes refugee relocation plan, EU member states at odds

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday called for relocating 120,000 migrants arriving in Italy, Greece and Hungary under a compulsory scheme among member states of the European Union (EU).

Juncker made the proposals during his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where he put forward a comprehensive package of proposals to help address the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

This comes in addition to the European Commission's proposal in May to relocate 40,000 people, which is still to be adopted by the European Council, thus bringing the total proposed number up to 160,000.

The new relocation would be done according to a mandatory distribution key using objective and quantifiable criteria, the European Commission said in a press release.

The figures of 120,000 persons to be relocated shows that Germany and France should take in 46 percent of asylum seekers.

The distribution of tens of thousands of refugees has triggered controversy among EU member states. Some of them especially oppose to mandatory refugee quotas.

Romania Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has declared Romania prefers voluntary immigrant quotas instead of mandatory ones.

According to him, any proposition or figures put forward by the European Commission with regard to refugees will be subject to an inter-institutional analysis in Romania and to negotiations between the EU member states.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that Romania can receive right now a number of 1,780 refugees, instead of 4,646 people according to the Commission's plan.

The new quota for Poland is over 9,000, against the 2,000 declared by the Polish government.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said during the Economic Forum in Krynica that he did not agree on imposing the quotas on various EU countries.

Czech said it will host a foreign ministers' meeting of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries, Germany and Luxembourg on the migrant crisis on Friday in a bid to bridge the difference in dealing with the refugees crisis, especially on refugee-sharing quotas.

Considering the possible increasing disputes, Juncker said, "If ever European solidarity needed to manifest itself, it is on the question of the refugee crisis. It is time to show collective courage and deliver this European response now."

The European Commission will present the relocation plan to an emergency meeting of EU internal affairs ministers by Sept. 14.

"It is time to instigate a more fundamental change to the manner by which we deal with asylum. Solidarity must be anchored in our rules. The member states must reexamine their integration policies and allow asylum seekers to work," Juncker said. Endit