Asylum seekers at the Franco-Italian border, between Menton and Ventimiglia, June 16, 2015 | EPA EU misses migration target Ministers had hoped to agree on how to relocate 40,000 migrants.

The EU fell short Monday of an agreed target for the relocation of 40,000 asylum-seekers across Europe.

Interior and justice ministers secured pledges from member countries to take about 32,000 refugees and pushed a deadline for completing the pact until the end of the year.

The failure to reach the goal is the latest stumble for the EU in its response to the migration crisis. Countries have been arguing since April over how to control the flow of thousands of refugees arriving from North Africa and the Middle East.

“The figures speak for themselves… sometimes they are encouraging… [and] in some instances [they are] embarrassing,” said Jean Asselborn, the Luxembourg minister for immigration and asylum, who presided over the meeting. “Working on a voluntary basis clearly there are some limits.”

As part of an agreement reached by EU leaders at an end-of-June summit, member countries were supposed to commit to firm figures on accepting asylum-seekers, but several countries that have been opposing the plan since it was first proposed in May by the European Commission have refused to budge.

In total, countries committed Monday to the relocation of just over 32,000 refugees already in Europe, and to nearly 23,000 seeking international protection who are not yet here. That is short of the total of 60,000 pledged at the June summit.

Germany and France agreed to shoulder most of the burden, committing to relocate 10,500 and 6,750 asylum-seekers, respectively, according to a country-by-country breakdown released after the meeting.

But other states fell far short of the European Commission’s originally proposed numbers for relocation. Spain, for example, agreed to take 1,300 of the initially suggested 4,288. Latvia is still proposing to take in just 200 asylum-seekers, less than half of what the Commission originally proposed.

Austria and Hungary, which earlier this month constructed a fence along its Serbian border to keep out migrants, did not commit to accepting any relocated refugees.

Ireland, which could have been exempt from the deal under the terms of its EU membership, instead opted in and agreed to accept 600 refugees. And if non-EU member Norway had not agreed to accept 3,500, the resettlement target of 20,000 would not have been reached.

The discussions were tense. Asselborn told POLITICO that he had to “go at it with nerves” to get countries to commit.

Ministers had previously failed to agree during an informal council in Luxembourg on July 9 on how to apportion the proposed 40,000 figure. The deaths of nearly 800 migrants attempting a voyage from Libya to Europe in April pushed the issue onto the EU’s agenda.

At the June summit, a rancorous debate pitted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who wanted mandatory resettlement quotas, against European Council President Donald Tusk and smaller central European countries who preferred a voluntary scheme.

It was left up to individual countries to find a way to make the math work before the end of July. Resettling another 20,000 asylum seekers not yet in Europe is less controversial.

France, Germany and the Netherlands want all countries to accept the Commission’s original figures, which were calculated using a distribution key based on factors including population, GDP, average number of asylum applications and the number of resettled refugees, and unemployment.

Other countries, including several in Eastern Europe, are sticking with figures significantly lower than those proposed by the Commission.

Critics said the outcome of Monday’s meeting fell well short of expectations, and argued that the portion of refugees set to be relocated is only a small slice of the problem.

“We are disappointed. There’s a disconnect between numbers and the situation,” said Aurelie Ponthieu, humanitarian adviser on displacement at Médecins sans Frontières, after Monday’s announcement. “These numbers are not going to have an impact on the situation today.”

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs Committee, which is briefed and consulted on the Council’s deliberations, last Thursday voted to back any emergency relocation deal that would be reached Monday.

The chair of the committee, British MEP Claude Moraes, told POLITICO last week that while the Parliament’s vote also called for a permanent distribution key that would take into account the wishes of future migrants, “there has to be a [emergency relocation] deal. That’s the bottom line. It would be shameful for the EU not to have a deal by Monday.”

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