This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/22/refugee-crisis-eu-ministers-to-discuss-binding-quotas-live-updates
The article has changed 16 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Refugee crisis: EU ministers to discuss binding quotas - live updates | Refugee crisis: EU ministers to discuss binding quotas - live updates |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 8.40am BST08:40 | |
| Germany’s vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, has been high-fiving refugees on a visit to Jordon’s Zaatari camp. | |
| "Give me Five": #Gabriel mit Flüchtlingskind im UN-Lager Zaatari #dpaReporter @dpa pic.twitter.com/gYtanrW1ft | |
| 8.28am BST08:28 | |
| A binding quota system for resettling refugees across Europe could be forced through under a qualified majority vote, according to one of the architects of the plan. | |
| Labour MEP Claude Moraes, chair of a committee which pushed the idea of through European parliament last week, said today’s meeting of EU interior ministers “should signal the beginning of the end of paralysis.” | |
| Speaking on BBC’s Radio 4’s Today programme he said countries resisting the idea could be forced to accept some refugees or face financial penalties. | |
| He said it was “appalling” that EU ministers failed to agree on the idea earlier this month. | |
| He added: “The EU is not signalling an organised and compassionate response, so if qualified majority voting has to happen today then it will happen. But I think those countries who are blocking any sort of progress ... they will take some symbolic numbers or they will take some sort of financial penalty. If they don’t do that we are going to have chaotic scenes [and] ... no organised and compassionate response at all.” | |
| Moraes said the number of 120,000 refugees being resettled under the plan was already out of date, as thousands more migrants and refugees arrive in Europe. | |
| He said: “We have to begin the relocation process because if you don’t get people out of these areas, like the Hungarian Serbian border, out of Croatia, what is happening then is that people just receive panic [and] you have the humanitarian problems of course ... | |
| “It can be done, but at the moment with lots of countries blocking even that initial progress we won’t have it. Today should signal the beginning of the end of paralysis. But it has been a painful slow process to get to this.” | |
| Updated at 8.29am BST | |
| 7.54am BST07:54 | 7.54am BST07:54 |
| Summary | Summary |
| Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the refugee crisis as EU interior ministers are due to hold talks about binding refugee quotas in the face of resistance to the idea from central European states. | Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the refugee crisis as EU interior ministers are due to hold talks about binding refugee quotas in the face of resistance to the idea from central European states. |
| Here’s a summary of the latest developments: | Here’s a summary of the latest developments: |