(DW.COM) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that EU states that benefited from the bloc yet considered only their own self-interest when it came to taking in migrants with proven asylum status should face financial penalties.
"You can't have countries that massively benefit from the solidarity of the European Union and that massively voice their national selfishness when it comes to migrant issues," he told a press conference in Paris alongside new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
"I am in favor of sanctions being imposed in the event of no cooperation," he added.
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Both Macron and Sanchez also spoke in favor of establishing closed reception centers, set up close to where migrants often arrive first in Europe, where migrants can be held while their applications for asylum are processed. The centers would be created in accordance with guidelines from the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, Macron said.
