MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Commission's mechanism of mandatory quotas for the relocation of refugees, under which EU member states are obliged to provide refugees with asylum, is not functioning, European Parliament Martin Shulz said Friday.
"[European] Commission takes the initiative, sends that to the European Parliament and to the Council and then it is decided in the Council with qualified majority… it happened in the frame of the European rules, but we see on the other hand that despite the correct legal way it does not function… I belong to those, who say that a mandatory solution does not function, but we get a voluntary one, which is effective," Schulz said during a press conference at the informal meeting of EU leaders in Bratislava.
In September 2015, the European Commission announced a quota scheme for each EU member state depending on its size, population and social and economic indicators, providing for the resettlement of 160,000 refugees throughout EU countries over the next two years.
