EU votes to relocate 120,000 refugees

BRUSSELS

EU interior ministers approved a plan Tuesday to relocate 120,000 refugees across the continent to ease the strain on “frontline” states.

An emergency meeting in Brussels agreed by a majority vote to allocate the migrants under a compulsory quota system, the EU said in a statement. The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary voted against the motion.

Finland abstained from the vote while Poland, which had opposed the scheme, voted in favor.

Slovakia’s prime minister said he would not accept the quota system, which is designed to settle migrants around Europe and take pressure off Greece, Hungary and Italy.

The vote follows a deal last week to relocate 40,000 refugees.

The issue must now be ratified by member state leaders at a meeting Wednesday.

“Following this decision, the EU is now in a position to relocate a total of 160,000 people in clear need of international protection in the coming two years,” the EU statement said.

It added: “The root causes of the refugee crisis must be addressed. That is why tomorrow heads of state and government will discuss the immediate priority actions which are necessary to address the instability in our vicinity, and the refugee pressures on neighboring countries.”

It is unusual for an issue affecting national sovereignty to be voted on a majority basis rather than unanimously but it follows a meeting last week in which central and east European ministers blocked the quota system.