Gap in Migrant Resettlement Plan Stresses EU Inherent 'Absurdity'-Lawmaker

The European Parliament member said Monday that divergence in the EU obligatory migrant resettlement quota plan highlights profound differences between the bloc members.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The discrepancies over the EU obligatory migrant resettlement quota plan highlights profound differences between the bloc members, Marie-Christine Arnautu, a member of the European Parliament from France, told Sputnik on Monday.

"This issue highlights the absurdity of this alliance of countries with very different interests, different policies and even if at one stage national sovereignty was quelled, now there is a slip in the European Union," Arnautu said.

According to the lawmaker, the penalties for countries that refuse to comply to the migrant quotas will create huge problems at a European level.

Many European countries are trying to cope with tens of thousands of undocumented asylum seekers from conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa who are fleeing to Europe to escape poverty and violence at home.

Over 500,000 migrants have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015, according to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

On September 9, the European Commission called on EU member states to resettle some 160,000 migrants throughout the bloc over the next two years under a new plan of binding quotas.

On Monday, the EU interior ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the quota plan.