EU countries must be prepared to relocate greater numbers of refugees and help Greece cope with the thousands arriving there weekly, says Ska Keller, EP's lead person for the file.

"40,000 can only be the start"

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/18741021/n006-150716-001-enx.srt

The Commission had proposed  40,000 refugees to be relocated

from Italy and Greece,  which is, well, a small number.

And that's what we say in the report now,  very clearly, that this is an initial number.

That when the Commission comes up  with a permanent relocation scheme,

which should happen  at the end of the year,

then the number needs to be  much more substantial.

Greece has a particular problem  because they have now overtaken Italy

They have very poor facilities,  especially on the islands, or no facilities,

and clearly Greece has  very big economic problems,

so there have already been  food shortages for refugees.

I really think the European Union  needs to be doing more about this.

It's really a great pity that Member States  couldn't agree to a binding mechanism,

but then they promised  they would take on board 40,000 refugees.

And still they haven't provided enough  numbers to add up to those 40,000.

it will really be a blow  to European Union solidarity.