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EUROPEAN Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called on EU countries yesterday to to share 160,000 refugees voluntarily or face compulsion.
He warned that Greece, Italy and Hungary could no longer cope with the refugee influx alone.
Mr Juncker was fleshing out a widely trailed list of new proposals to help Europe confront its refugee crisis.
“The refugee crisis will not simply go away,” Mr Juncker told MEPs gathered in Strasbourg, noting that some 500,000 migrants had entered Europe this year. “It is high time to act.”
He unveiled a new plan for 22 of the EU 28 states to share 120,000 refugees from Greece, Italy and Hungary, on top of a May proposal to share 40,000 refugees from Greece and Italy.
The first EU refugee plan never won full support and only around 32,000 refugees have been allocated.
Hungary was among the countries to reject it, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Along with Romania, they still do.
The commission also unveiled a €1.8 billion (£1.3bn) fund to help African nations cut the number of migrants heading for Europe.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency warned that Hungary faced a wave of 42,000 refugees in the next 10 days.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was sending tents, beds and blankets to Hungary’s Serbian border.
Commissioner Antonio Guterres accused the entire EU of failing to see the crisis coming or taking co-ordinated action, saying the bloc should have enough resources to absorb hundreds of thousands.
UNHCR refugee co-ordinator Vincent Cochetel said that 42,000 people — 30,000 in Greece, 7,000 in Macedonia and 5,000 in Serbia — would enter Hungary in the next 10 days.
In Geneva, UN special representative on migration Peter Sutherland said that too many countries wanted to give financial aid but not places for refugees.
“Buying your way out is not satisfactory,” he warned.
Even so, UN members had not provided nearly enough funding for existing relief efforts, he added.
The UNHCR is seeking an extra $30.5 million (£19.8m) by the end of this year in an emergency appeal for financial help.
