BRUSSELS—Deeply divided European Union ministers agreed Tuesday to relocate 120,000 asylum-seekers to ease the strain on Greece and Italy, which are on the front line of the migrant flood. But a senior European leader conceded that the move was only a small step toward resolving one of the worst crises ever faced by the 28-nation bloc.
Four eastern European countries—the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary—voted against the plan, and it’s unclear if they will even implement it.
Those nations have resisted accepting the forced resettlement of refugees on their territory.
Slovakia would rather breach the measure “than accept such a dictate,” said Prime Minster Robert Fico.
His Czech counterpart, Bohuslav Sobotka, added: “It’s a bad decision, and the Czech Republic did all it could to block it.”
EU leaders will gather Wednesday evening in Brussels to try to adopt a unified approach to the crisis that has seen 477,906 people stream into Europe from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, according to estimates by the U.N. refugee agency. Some European countries have reinstated border controls to stem the flood, and Hungary has built a fence topped with razor wire on its frontier with Serbia.
EU Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans insisted that all member states “respect the outcome” of the relocation plan, which he said showed that the bloc is “capable of taking decisions even if, for some member states, these are very difficult decisions.”
But even Timmermans conceded it was only a small step, and plenty more remains to be done.
“In and by itself, the decision we took today is not going to solve the refugee crisis,” he said. “The refugee crisis can be brought under control, but make no mistake it will take a tremendous amount of effort, it will take a long time, and it will take many steps in many areas.”
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees urged the EU to quickly set up facilities in Greece, where tens of thousands have arrived after making the hazardous sea crossing from Turkey.
This may be “the last opportunity for a coherent European response,” said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR.
Tuesday’s deal did not set mandatory quotas for each nation—one of the most contentious aspects of the proposed plan. It said that 66,000 asylum-seekers will be relocated from Greece and Italy, and 54,000 more in a year’s time.
Amnesty International’s Europe director, John Dalhuisen, cautioned that agreed-upon numbers “are still too low, given the immensity of the current crisis.”
