Romania and the immigrants’ crisis

Romania will receive several asylum seekers who reached Italy and Greece through the Mediterranean Sea as well as refugees from outside the EU. Tens of refugees, most of whom from Eritrea and Syria, must be helped in a gesture of solidarity, say the Europ

Mihai Pelin, 28.05.2015, 14:40

Romania is to receive in the next two years more than 2,300 migrants as part of a European project meant to ensure a redistribution of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who risk their lives to reach the EU. The European Commissions plan is to get member states support asylum seekers as well as countries like Italy and Greece that can no longer cope with the successive waves of refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

The European Commissions move is a gesture of solidarity, also based on the emergency mechanism stipulated in the EU treaties. The EC has proposed the activation, for the first time, of article 78 in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which provides for the adoption of provisional measures when one or more member states are faced with an emergency situation such as a massive flow of citizens from third countries.

Romania is to receive more than 1,700 asylum seekers who reached Italy and Greece through the Mediterranean Sea as well as another 650 refugees from outside the EU, after the EC asked member states to accommodate, for a period of two years, 20,000 people from third countries, who need international protection. For each refugee received, the European Commission will allot 6,000 euros.

The EU Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos pointed out that this quota of refugee distribution to member states was set depending on four criteria: the GDP, the total number of the population, the unemployment rate and the number of applications for asylum previously registered by the respective country. Therefore Germany, France and Spain are to deal with the greatest number of applications for asylum, Germany taking around 9,000 refugees. A smaller number of refugees will go to Cyprus and Slovenia.

However the plan is faced with opposition from several member states, among which France and Hungary. The ECs proposals still have to go a long and complicated way until being materialized. In order to be enforced the proposals shall have to be adopted by a qualified majority of the European Council, after prior consultations with the European Parliament. Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark will not participate in the voting given that, based on the accession treaties, they have the right to not participate in certain mechanisms. We recall that, according to Eurostat, in 2014 Romania offered asylum to 460 Syrian citizens, 120 Iraqis and 70 Afghans.