(Reuters) The European Union’s executive launched a contentious plan on Wednesday for overhauling broken migration rules to resolve years of bitterness and provide a better welcome for refugees fleeing the Middle East and Africa.
The most sensitive element would de facto oblige each state to host some refugees — something eastern nations Poland and Hungary are dead against — under “mandatory solidarity.”
A country would receive 10,000 euros ($11,750) from the bloc’s budget per adult taken in.
“We need these people because we are an ageing society,” said the top EU migration official Ylva Johansson.
Endless feuds over where to locate people have caused bad blood between the Mediterranean-shore countries where they mainly arrive, the reluctant easterners, and the richer northern states where many of the newcomers aspire to live.
