Spotlight: EU pushes through plan to relocate 120,000 refugees amid oppositions

The governments of European Union (EU) member countries approved the proposal to relocate 120,000 migrants by a majority vote on Tuesday amid fierce oppositions from several countries in central and eastern Europe.

The European Commission has proposed resettling the 120,000 refugees on top of the 40,000 refugees that member states have already agreed to relocate from EU countries exposed to massive migratory flows.

Home affairs ministers of EU member states gathered in Brussels Tuesday for the second time in as many weeks to resolve the dispute over the relocation plan. As EU member states were wildly divided over the issue, the decision was at last pushed through by a vote on Tuesday.

The decision established a temporary and exceptional relocation mechanism over two years from the frontline member states Italy and Greece to other member states, it said in a statement after the meeting.

Following this decision, the EU is now in a position to relocate a total of 160,000 people in clear need of international protection in the coming two years.

According to the decision, 66, 000 persons will be relocated from Italy and Greece (15,600 from Italy and 50,400 from Greece) . The remaining 54, 000 persons will be relocated from Italy and Greece in the same proportion after one year of the entry into force of the decision.

EU said the member states participating in the mechanism will receive a lump sum of 6, 000 euros for each relocated person.

However, the plan was outright resisted by some member states, including Britain and several countries in central Europe.

"We, the Slovaks, Romanians, Hungarians [were] against, Finland abstained. The plan was adopted," Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec wrote on Twitter after the vote.

The minister said the plan was an "empty political gesture" ahead of the meeting, though he previously said his country was ready to take in thousands of people on a voluntary basis.

Denmark and the United Kingdom are not participating in this decision.

"We would have prepared to have adoption by consensus but we did not manage to achieve that. Some member states did not join this large majority. They pointed out their other legitimate points of view," said Jean Asselborn, Minister for Immigration and Asylum of Luxembourg.

But he stressed that the agreement has won the vote by a very large majority among the member states. "A majority going beyond that required by the Treaties," he added.

"I have no doubt that they will implement these decisions fully as they are used to be doing and as all of us are used to do in full respect of community law," Asselborn told reporters.

But, the response from Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico may shatter Asselborn's confidence.

"I would rather go to an infringement than to accept this diktat," Fico said of the decision, quoted by Slovakia's leading SME daily.

Of the 120,000, the nine countries of central and eastern Europe are being asked to take around 10,000, while the figure for Germany and France will double that.

However, the European Commission welcomed the result in a statement following the emergency talks and made salutations in particular to Luxembourg, the current holder of the EU presidency.

The EU executive body said it will organize the necessary coordination with member states and the EU agencies to implement the mechanism on the ground.

Relocation is part of a comprehensive approach to deal with the ongoing refugee crisis, the European Commission said.

"This decision is an important and essential building block in what is a much larger approach that we will have to take," said Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission.

Noting the decision itself may not solve the refugees 'crisis, Timmermans said it is a crucial position to take the next steps to ensure better protecting EU's external borders.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European commissioner in charge of Migration, expected the process to start in the coming weeks.

"Now that we agreed on the numbers we will ensure swift implementation for plans in close coordination with the national borders and the EU agencies," he said.

The interior ministers are expected to move forward on the other proposals made by the European Commission, including the EU List of Safe Countries of Origin and the further reform of the Dublin system, at the next Justice and Home Affairs Council on Oct. 8.

At the same time, the European Commission pledged to address the root causes of the refugee crisis.

The statement said Wednesday's meeting of EU heads of state and government would discuss the immediate priority actions which are necessary to address the instability in EU's vicinity, and the refugee pressures on neighboring countries. Endit