1-0 to Italy! Rome claims victory in battle to share migrant burden

ROME yesterday declared it was ‘one nil to Italia’ after Brussels revealed it wanted to axe rules that keep most asylum seekers in the first EU country they reach.

Italian officials have argued the Dublin regulation places an unfair burden on southern countries that have been inundated with migrants.

But the European Commission’s plan to replace Dublin with an allocation mechanism yesterday received a hostile reaction from Eastern Europe.

The Visegrad 4 group of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic has been resisting the idea of the EU having a permanent quota system to share out new arrivals. They see this as an unacceptable snatch of power from capitals by Brussels.

A Polish source warned: ‘Our position has always been to stress the importance of the security of the external border.

‘We’ve been saying for a long time that a permanent mechanism [to distribute refugees] does not seem to be a good response to the crisis itself, it does not provide an overall solution.

‘We need time and great care in the process, not a mechanism that automatically relocates people this way or the other – that would be chaotic and haphazard.’

Vincenzo Scarpetta, of the think-tank Open Europe, said: ‘If the idea is to replace Dublin with a permanent relocation mechanism and binding quotas then good luck with that.

‘We have seen from the existing quota system how problematic that would be with member states. It would be seen as a huge transfer of power from national capitals to the EU.’

EU leaders in September agreed to relocate 1 0,000 asylum seekers but only 300 have been moved so far.