ANKARA
The European Commission is planning an ambitious deployment of warships and surveillance aircraft in the Mediterranean to stop illegal migrant vessels, EU defense head Federica Mogherini told reporters Monday.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels, Mogherini said: "Today the main point will be taking the decision to establish the EU operation at sea to dismantle the criminal networks that are smuggling people in the Mediterranean."
The group will consider the proposal at the meeting Monday.
This proposal comes after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Saturday rejected an EC plan to impose quotas on migrant relocation.
"I am against the introduction of quotas for migrants. This has never been the French position," Valls said Saturday during a visit to Menton in southeastern France.
"Asylum is a right, attributed according to international criteria. One is an asylum seeker or not," Valls said. He called for the reinstitution of EU border controls.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said last week that his country would work on an alternative proposal involving investment in development in countries where many migrants come from.
Creating an economic future for youth at home would keep migrants from seeking better lives elsewhere, Cazeneuve said at a meeting with his Cameroonian counterpart Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo on Friday.
France has joined with the U.K. in rejecting the proposal. On May 11, U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May announced that Britain would not accept the plan.
According to the commission proposal, EU member states should accept a quota of asylum seekers based on a series of factors, including population, wealth and the unemployment rate.
Under the terms of the proposal, France would be asked to accept about 14 percent of those who seek asylum in the EU.
The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia have all said they would not accept quotas.
On April 29, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested setting up a quota system for migrants across all 28 EU member countries.
"We must distribute refugees throughout the whole of Europe," Juncker said.
The commission published a statement with details for the proposal May 13.
The plan proposed is to create an EU-wide resettlement scheme to offer 20,000 places distributed in all member states to displaced persons.
Such people must be in clear need of international protection. The scheme would require dedicated extra funding of 50 million euros ($57.1 million) for 2015 and 2016.
