EP insists on binding quotas for refugee relocation: Schulz

The European Parliament (EP) insisted on the binding permanent relocation mechanism for all member states of the European Union (EU), EP President Martin Schulz told the EU leaders in an emergency refugee summit late Wednesday.

Heads of state or government from the 28 EU member states gathered for another emergency summit Wednesday on the refugee crisis, a day after their ministers pushed through a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees by a majority vote despite objections from several member states.

"Now the European Parliament insists, and has already started work on, the Commission's proposed binding permanent relocation mechanism for all member states," Schulz said in his speech to the summit.

He said the binding quota is based on objective and verifiable distribution criteria and which takes into account asylum seekers' needs, family situation and skills, but also the situation of each member state including its different circumstances in terms of population, GDP, unemployment rate and number of refugees already in the country.

However, a number of central Europe countries have been putting up fierce resistance to the idea of relocation binding quotas.

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.

Disputing the illegality of the binding quotas, the Czech Republic, Slovak, Romania and Hungary voted against the relocation plan during the meeting of home affairs ministers on previous day.

"I would rather go to an infringement than to accept this diktat," Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico told Slovakia's leading SME daily after Tuesday's vote.

Schulz said that huge refugee flows are no longer manageable for "frontline" member states, such as Greece and Italy.

"Parliament is convinced that by sharing the task, it becomes manageable," he said.

"To distribute a few hundred thousand among 507 million in 28 countries should not pose a problem," Schulz argued.

Meanwhile, the president warned that the member states that closed borders permanently may destroy the common market.

"A Schengen Area where citizens are stopped at the borders while thousands of lorries carrying goods for the 'just-in-time economy' pass without a check would not survive more than a day," he said.

However, he did say that closing internal borders is permissible as a very short term measure in certain circumstances.

Facing the unseen refugee challenge in recent European history, European Parliament called the member states to cope with the crisis with solidarity.

"The centrifugal forces of national egotism threaten to tear our union apart," he stressed, adding that the leaders must avoid such a split at all costs.

"European challenges need European responses," Schulz said to the leaders. Enditem