EU: Compromise on refugee reforms by July

EU leaders picked July as a deadline for solving the bloc’s migrant crisis, and come up with the working plan to relocate some 160,000 refugees that landed in Greece and Italy from the Middle East. So far only 35,000 of them have been transferred to other member states. With some countries, like Poland refusing to take them in saying that would threaten their security after a raft of Islamic attacks in Europe. “There are areas where there is no solidarity and this is something I find unacceptable,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “Mandatory quotas remain a contentious issue. Relocation is not a solution to the issue of illegal migration,” the European Council President Donald Tusk said. “Will a compromise be possible? It appears very hard. But we have to try our very best,” he added. If the European leaders fail to reach compromise by June, the reform, and possible quotas could be decided by majority vote. “I am not a fan of qualified majority decision-taking but it can be used. Some of our colleagues were openly saying yesterday night that if there is no progress, they will propose qualified majority decision-making procedure,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.