European Commission President announces refugee distribution

IN his first State of the Nation speech, Jean-Claude Juncker announced the number of refugees that each member state – with some exceptions revealed below – would take and Spain has been allocated 14,931.

A calculation was made based on a combination of distribution, population, GDP, unemployment level and the previous record of the accepting country.

Greece, Italy and Hungary are excluded as they are considered the countries most suffering from the influx of refugees and this decision is made in part to assist them. Others who are not included in the list of affected countries are Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom as the terms of their membership of the Union does not require them to participate, although the British have already indicated that they will take 4,000 Syrian refugees each year for the next five years.

Of the 14,931 total number of refugees Spain is taking, 6,719 come from Hungary, 6,271 come from Greece and 1,941 from Italy

President Juncker reminded all members of the plight of the Huguenots, Gypsies, the Spanish Republicans in the Civil War and those states behind what was known as the Iron Curtain.

During his speech, which pulled few punches, he said ‘Europeans cannot forget the importance of the right of asylum, one of the most human values which exist. Despite our fragility, our own perception of weakness, today Europe needs to become a place for refuge and exile. Europe is, greatly the most stable and rich place in the world.’

The full list of countries and minimum number of refugees to be accommodated as released by the European Commission is as follows;

Germany: 31,443
France: 24,031
Spain: 14,931
Poland: 9,287
Holland: 7,214
Romania: 4,646
Belgium: 4,564
Sweden: 4,469
Austria: 3,640
Portugal: 3,074
Czech Republic: 2,978
Finland: 2,398
Bulgaria: 1,600
Slovakia: 1,502
Croatia: 1,064
Lithuania: 780
Slovenia: 631
Latvia: 526
Luxembourg: 440
Estonia: 373
Cyprus: 274
Malta: 133
Total 120,000

Good mathematicians will however note that these figures only add up to 119,998.