Juncker urges Europe to welcome refugees

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged EU governments on Wednesday to accept a mandatory system to share out a wave of refugees fleeing war and poverty but also promised to improve frontier defenses and deport more illegal migrants.

In his first State of the Union address to the European Parliament, Juncker outlined an emergency plan to distribute 160,000 refugees among the 28 EU member states and promised a permanent asylum mechanism to cope with future crises.

Defending his much-criticized proposal for mandatory burden sharing, he said Europe could not leave Greece, Hungary and Italy, the main receiving countries, to cope with the flood.

He appealed to Europeans to respond to the crisis with humanity, dignity and "historical fairness" and not take fright, saying the vast majority of the 500,000 people who had arrived in Europe this year were fleeing war in Syria and Libya, "the terror of the Islamic State" or "dictatorship in Eritrea".

E urope was a continent where many had been refugees over the centuries and it was rich enough to cope with a challenge far smaller than the one facing Syria's neighbors - Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

"It is Europe today that represents a beacon of hope, a haven of stability in the eyes of women and men in the Middle East and in Africa. That is something to be proud of and not something to fear," the former Luxembourg prime minister said in a marathon 80-minute speech.

"The Europe I want to live in is illustrated by those who want to help," he added, denouncing calls to discriminate among refugees according to their religion.

He was heckled by Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, who said most of those arriving were economic migrants and the EU should emulate Australia's "stop the boats" policy to halt a flow of "biblical proportions".

Italian lawmaker Gianluca Buonanno of the anti-immigration Northern League donned an Angela Merkel face-m ask to interrupt Juncker in an attempt to suggest that the German chancellor was dictating asylum policy to Europe. Berlin has said it expects to receive up to 800,000 asylum seekers this year.

Juncker said the refugee crisis was his top priority, before the economy, Greece's debt woes, Ukraine, climate change and a looming vote on Britain's membership of the bloc.

That list of issues showed the European Union was in a bad state, he said, declaring: "There is not enough Europe in this Union, and there is not enough union in this Union."

He confirmed plans for a common EU list of "safe countries of origins" whose citizens would be subject to fast-track deportations if they breached EU immigration laws.

He also urged EU member states to allow refugees to work from day one while their asylum applications are processed.

OPPOSITION EXPECTED

Juncker's proposals face opposition from several central European governments when EU interior ministers meet on Monday.

Many reject compulsory quotas and some, such as Slovakia, want to take in only a handful of Christian refugees.

But under strong pressure from Germany, France and Italy, the tide appears to be turning towards more European solidarity.

Juncker pledged to improve the management of the bloc's external frontiers, bolster its Frontex border agency and moves to create "European coastguard and border guard systems".

He also proposed a "more effective approach to return" - addressing complaints that too many people not entitled to asylum enter the Union illegally and remain there often despite legal proceedings that conclude they should return home.

Juncker called for efforts to strengthen the EU's common asylum system and a review of the so-called Dublin system, under which people may request asylum on ly in the state where they first enter the EU, straining resources in frontline countries.

Answering criticism from refugee and migration agencies, he said the EU would "develop safe legal avenues for those in need of protection" - reducing the temptation to risk dangerous sea crossings and smuggling networks - as well as a permanent scheme to resettle refugees from other regions and better protection for refugees living in regions neighboring Europe.

He also proposed a better system for legal migration to attract talents from around the world to the ageing continent.

EU WRANGLING

The detailed proposals may provoke new wrangling among EU states and between national leaders and the EU executive.

Juncker reminded former communist central European member states that refugees fleeing Soviet repression in their countries had been welcomed in large numbers in western Europe.

And he took a dig at Hungary's building of a frontier fence by saying desperate families fleeing Syria would cross any barrier and brave many dangers to escape th eir homeland.

The mounting scale of the human calamity on the bloc's frontiers -- and fears that discord might do wider damage to shared interests like freedom of travel across Europe's internal borders -- has kindled some willingness to compromise after an earlier Juncker plan in May provoked bitter recrimination.

"This time, the Commission seems to be proposing a more comprehensive approach, also addressing the need to control the external frontiers better," said one EU diplomat whose government was among those in the east who argued that their society, unused to immigration, could not take in large numbers.

"There is still a lot to negotiate. There is a lot we cannot accept. But the debate is now a lot less emotional."

MERKEL PERSUASION

Also driving the EU towards some accord has been the stand taken by Merkel, whose government has taken in the greatest number of asylum-seekers.

She has called on poorer eastern neighbors who receive German-funded EU subsidies to show solidarity -- and warned that the Schengen system of open borders from which they benefit is under threat from chaotic movements of migrants across the bloc.

"When Merkel needs something, and she plays it sensibly as she usually does, things start to move," said another senior EU diplomat from the formerly Communist east.

While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains vocally opposed to relocation quotas, his country will now benefit from the scheme, having taken in tens of thousands. And Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz conceded on Tuesday that Warsaw could take in more than the 2,000 people it announced earlier. Under Juncker's plan, EU sources say Poland would be asked to take in nearly 12,000.

EU officials have said countries could also be offered the chance to contribute financially rather than take in migrants.

Britain has been critical of the EU approach but is exempt from the bloc's asylum policies and will not take part, altho ugh Prime Minister David Cameron said this week it would accept up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years. Spain, which had complained its likely quota was too high, said on Tuesday it was ready to take what the European Union allocated to it.

(Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Jan Strupczewski and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Paul Taylor; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Giles Elgood)

Source: Juncker urges Europe to welcome refugees