- European Union leaders meet on Wednesday, hoping to rally behind common responses to the migration crisis. Following are policies that the EU and its executive arm, the European Commission, are pursuing. BORDER FORCES Following the drowning of some 800 people on a single boat off Libya in April, the EU effectively reversed a sharp cutback in warships conducting search and rescue operations; since June, a naval operation has been targeting people-smugglers. Plans to roam far into Libyan waters are on hold, seeking U.N. support. The Commission on Wednesday said it would step up funding for the coordination agency Frontex and propose by December steps to establish a European Border and Coast Guard. At present each state manages its own section of the external EU border. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE The EU has paid for food, medicine, shelter and other needs for migrants in countries which have asked for it. Some 73 million euros ($82 million) in emergency short-term funding have been allocated. Italy and Greece will get nearly half of 2.4 billion euros help with the crisis over several years. RELOCATION Governments have agreed two schemes to relocate a total of 160,000 asylum-seekers over two years from Italy and Greece. The first, for 40,000 people, is voluntary as leaders objected in June to a Commission proposal of binding quotas. The second, for 120,000, involves mandatory national quotas and was agreed on Tuesday over fierce objections from four eastern states. Mainly Syrians, Eritreans and Iraqis will qualify to have their asylum claims processed in other EU states. Normally, under the Dublin rules, the first EU state entered must handle the claimants. Once asylum seekers are relocated they have no right to move within Europe's Schengen borderless zone, though critics of the scheme say that may prove unworkable, with many keen to reach the likes of Germany and Sweden, the most popular destinations. The Commission will propose a permanent emergency relocation mechanism and review the Dublin asylum system next year.
