The European Union could have a long road ahead when it comes to achieving a unified EU-wide policy on refugees. On Monday, EU interior ministers began discussing proposals to set up a new, coordinated system for taking in and providing asylum for refugees from some of the world's most troubled regions.

At the moment, each EU state decides for itself who should be considered a refugee and what treatment they should receive. This means that the same person could be accepted as an asylum seeker in one country and rejected as an illegal immigrant by its neighbor.

The commission, the EU's executive, wants member states to replace the current assortment of often contradictory rules with a joint plan to identify the world's most vulnerable refugees and offer to provide them with homes. While participation in the scheme would be voluntary, EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot left no doubt about his feelings on the project.

"Europe's values give it the duty to take in the world's persecuted people," he asserted.

But, few ministers endorsed that view as they lined up to trumpet the importance of national independence. Among them, Austrian Interior Minister Maria Theresia Fekter, who insisted that participation be "voluntary," and "should not be undermined by any obligation to explain the grounds for non-participation."

EU members are deeply divided over the question of how urgent the migration issue is. Since the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary joined the EU in 2004, Austria has moved away from the front lines of European immigration worries. Now, it's countries like Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Greece that bear the brunt of immigrants fleeing across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa. They see the matter as more pressing than central European nations.

"Our structures cannot cope with the pressures," the secretary general of the Greek interior ministry, Patrocios Georgiadis, said as he called for a law which "went beyond a voluntary basis."

Recession worries outweigh problems of refugees

Countries which are further away from the immigration front line are more concerned with getting out of the economic crisis than taking in refugees – even though the commission has proposed a 4,000-euro ($5,900) aid package to help countries offset the costs for accepting each migrant.

While the EU's traditional power-brokers, Britain, Germany and France argued that solidarity is important, they also inssietd that they are already doing their part. Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble pointed out that his country has already taken in more refugees than any other nation in the EU.

Even Luxembourg, the EU's richest state in per-capita terms, has "limited resources" to take in refugees, "because of the size of our country," Interior Minister Nicolas Schmit said.

Czech deputy interior minister Lenka Ptackova Melicharova stressed, as she debated the proposals with her counterparts, that "there should be no limit to (national capitals') ability to choose" when, how and if they take in refugees.

UN refugee commissioner speaks out

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who attended the meetings, called the current European system "dysfunctional," and urged EU member states to help find homes for those fleeing conflict, persecution or extreme poverty.

"We remain confident that Europe is and shall go on being a continent of asylum. It's very important that Europe grants access to European territory for bona fide asylum seekers and the fair treatment of their claims," he said.

The commissioner also criticized a new policy adopted earlier this year in Italy which allowed authorities there to intercept boats with refugees arriving from Africa and turn the vessels back. They often end up in Libya, a country that Guterres said is not a safe place for would-be immigrants.

Libya is a major transit nation for sub-Saharan Africans – increasingly from the Horn of Africa – risking their lives in rickety boats to make the Mediterranean crossing.

Last year, some 35,000 illegal immigrants arrived on Italian shores. Of them, 75 percent sought political or humanitarian asylum, half of whom obtained it, according to the UN refugee agency. The human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, however, slammed conditions in Libya on Monday and condemned Italy's new immigration policy.

mrm/dpa/AP/Reuters
Editor: Rick Demarest