S&D MEPs welcomed the proposals presented by the European Commission on the resettlement and relocation of asylum seekers today. 
 
Birgit Sippel, S&D spokesperson for the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, said:
 
"It is high time that we have a fair way of distributing asylum seekers between member states. Although some countries have already criticised these proposals, we are delighted that the Commission has finally shown some backbone on the issue!"
 
"We support the idea of fair distribution across the EU, so to us it is not clear why the Commission proposals only apply to Italy and Greece. We need to ensure that the criteria is transparent. Furthermore we need to develop a permanent relocation mechanism that distributes asylum seekers equally across all member states.
 
"At the moment the resettlement proposal is for a voluntary scheme and only for limited time. In the long run we need to move towards a binding resettlement programme with yearly quotas. We have been talking about this issue too long; now is the time to act and put the lives of asylum seekers ahead of national egos."

MEPs involved
Coordinator
Germany