Germany pledged an extra six billion euros Monday to help the record numbers of desperate refugees crossing its borders, with France vowing to take in 24,000 over the next two years.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the scenes of spontaneous solidarity from hundreds of Germans who greeted families fleeing wars in Syria and beyond at railway stations with gifts and welcome signs were moving and “breathtaking”.
“What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years,” she said as French president Francois Hollande vowed his country would take a larger share.
Under pressure from Paris and Berlin, the European Union is readying fresh quotas that would see the two top EU economies take nearly half of the 120,000 refugees to be relocated under a plan by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
According to Juncker`s proposal for mandatory quotas for EU states which is set to be unveiled Wednesday, Germany would take 31,443 and France 24,031, to relieve the burden on Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source said.
Spain would take 14,931 under the plan, the source said.
Migrant numbers have spiked since Friday, when Austria and Germany threw open their borders and eased travel restrictions to allow in thousands who had made it to Hungary, which has balked at the influx.
Merkel`s government — which expects to accept 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times last year`s total — earmarked the additional six billion euros ($6.7 billion) to house and feed the newcomers for the next year.
“In these weeks and months, Germany is the destination for an unprecedented number of refugees who are seeking protection from war, persecution and distress,” the ruling coalition said after overnight talks.
Hundreds of refugees and their children again sat on blankets and suitcases early Monday outside Berlin`s refugee registration centre in scenes repeated across the country.
But the government hailed the “wave of solidarity” that Germans were showing and said the country`s economic strength would enable it to meet the challenge.Germany, Europe`s biggest economy, has taken in by far the EU`s largest numbers of refugees — but it has also spearheaded a push for fairer burden sharing across the 28-country community.
Merkel was to meet Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic later Monday, whose country is a key staging post on the Balkans refugee route to western Europe.
But with Europe deeply divided on how to deal with the crisis, the UN`s refugee chief said the crisis could be “manageable” if European countries all pulled their weight and agreed on a common approach.
“The European asylum system is deeply dysfunctional, it works badly,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres told French broadcasters.
“Some countries make the necessary effort, and the effort of many others is nearly non-existent.”
