European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot told members of the 27-nation bloc that it was their responsibility to open their borders to refugees from countries affected by conflict or severe poverty.

"The right to asylum is a basic European value," he said, as he outlined a voluntary scheme designed to offer help where it is genuinely needed.

Under the terms of Barrot's draft program, union members would agree to take in more people seeking sanctuary, but would not be bound to a pre-determined quota.

The idea is to create a scheme that allows EU countries to work more efficiently and in greater co-operation with one another and to share the growing load of international refugees.

In order to make the program more attractive to participating states, the European Commission would provide 4,000 euros ($5,680) of aid per refugee.

Barrot's plan would have states and experts annually reassess which groups of refugees were in the greatest need of help. That might mean that one year the emphasis is on people from particular regions and the next, upon certain types of displaced people.

European problems

Barrot said there was considerably greater room for Europe to do its bit. Of the 80,000 people the United Nations agency for refugees (UNHCR), says were resettled last year, only seven percent found homes in EU countries. The vast majority of them were accepted into the United States.

Sweden, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has agreed that Europe must do more for refugees from war-torn and impoverished regions. It says there is no point in a country tightening restrictions on illegal immigration if it does not simultaneously offer legal opportunities for entry into the European Union.

The voluntary EU resettlement scheme could go some way to easing the burden on countries such as Italy, Greece and Malta, which have long lamented the lack of EU help in resolving the problems of illegal immigrants reaching their shores.

Malta, which has a total population of just 410,000, currently houses 7,000 refugees in camps and centers within its tiny borders, and more are arriving all the time.

tkw/EPD/KNA/AFP

Editor: Chuck Penfold