Finland's Minister of the Interior Petteri Orpo (National Coalition Party) tweeted on Monday evening that EU Interior Ministers have reached an initial agreement on the number of Mediterranean migrants that Europe will accept: 55,000. That tweet looked premature later on, however, when it emerged that the initial agreement covers just 32,000 refugees and migrants.
EU Interior Ministers met in Brussels today to determine how many Mediterranean migrants who have landed in Greece and Italy should be taken by each member state. The initial decision to relocate the migrants throughout the European Union was made in June, but the specifics were not finalised until Monday evening of July 20.
The decision regarding additional migrants will be made in the fall, but for now some 32,000 migrants will be moved to other EU countries from the southern EU frontier states.
Italy and Greece were reprimanded to tighten their border control processes.
"It's important to take care of problems in their country of origin," tweeted Orpo.
This story has been edited to reflect news that Orpo's tweet was premature, and that the final number agreed was 32,000, not 55,000