France and Germany concerned over migrant quotas
France and Germany have expressed their dissatisfaction with the European Commission's plan to redistribute migrants within the EU via asylum quotas, given that the UK, Denmark and Ireland have been exempted from the plan.
Read more: EC to allow UK to escape asylum quota system
We believe that the balance between these two principles has not yet been reached
"This temporary relocalisation mechanism must be founded on two principles of equal importance: responsibility and solidarity. We believe that the balance between these two principles has not yet been reached in the proposal presented by the Commission," the interior ministers of both countries said in a joint statement on Monday.
The statement comes after the EC proposed to distribute nearly 40,000 migrants from Syria and Eritrea reaching Italian and Greek shores, of which Germany and France were asked to take nearly 40% between them.
These figures are based “on the total number of irregular border crossings of persons in clear need of international protection over the last year,” the EC said.
The proposal is part of the European Agenda on Migration adopted by the EU state members on 13 May as an answer to the tragic drowning of migrants trying to reach European shores.
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