Avramopoulos: ‘Solidarity cannot be a la carte’
Dimitris Avramopoulos, the executive European Commission’s migration chief, has called for a more fair distribution of refugees among the states of the 28-member bloc.
“Solidarity cannot be a la carte, it cannot be voluntary and it is not negotiable,” Avramopoulos said in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, adding that the so-called Dublin system – under which people arriving in the EU must stay to claim asylum in the first country they reach – must be revised in June 2018.
His comments came a day after Austria’s new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the EU should consider alternative ways to tackle migration crises and formally end “failed” attempts to achieve a quota system for distributing asylum seekers around the bloc.
“Forcing states to take refugees doesn't take Europe any further. The discussion makes no sense,” Kurz told the Saturday edition of Berlin-based newspaper Bild.
