EC Could Start Penal Procedures Against States Which Do Not Relocate Refugees

In March, the European Commission will decide whether to start penal procedures against the countries which do not admit a sufficient number of refugees under the mandatory quotas.

Since December, Bulgaria has not relocated new refugees from Greece and Italy under the scheme for solidarity relocation, reported the EC.

Still, the number of refugees actually admitted is 29 - from Greece. This was the data in the previous report of the European Commission at the beginning of December last year.

Not a single refugee has arrived from Italy to Bulgaria, in spite of the promised quota of 471 people.

The data covers only the mandatory system of solidarity relocation voted in 2015 for the quota relocation and resettlement of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece.

By the autumn of 2017, Bulgaria is under legal obligation to relocate at least 1,302 refugees from these two countries.

Not a single person has been relocated to Bulgaria under the other scheme adopted by the EU – for the voluntary relocation of persons from Turkey, the Lebanon and Jordan.

Bulgaria has announced 50 free places under this latter scheme.

The rest of the countries are also procrastinating with respect to the relocation of refugees and, so far, the number of relocated persons under the mandatory quotas is a mere 12,000, complained Deputy President of the EC Frans Timmermans.