BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the European Commission unveiled a plan to take in 20,000 refugees over the next two years and distribute them between EU member states, intending to ease the burden on southern European countries currently the primary migrant destination.
The quotas would be calculated using member state GDP, population, unemployment rate and the number of documented migrants legally residing in the countries.
“The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania do not agree with the proposal,” the source in the European Council told RIA Novosti.
The dramatic surge in the number of migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in Northern Africa and the Middle East and the increased number of migrant deaths during their flight to the European countries, has made the European Union rethink its approach toward migration.
On Monday, the bloc established a naval mission to counter illegal migrant trafficking in the Mediterranean Sea.
