After Poland last Friday (May 26) pushed back on a mechanism being studied by the European Union for the mandatory transfer of migrants as part of national reception quotas for member states, Hungary and other countries in central and eastern Europe sided with Warsaw.

Italy, alongside other Mediterranean countries, is meanwhile asking for solutions that are more effective in balancing the fair sharing of responsibility and the principle of solidarity.

The proposal on migration put forward by the Swedish EU presidency, at the moment, provides for the allocation of national reception quotas for each member state and the payment of a sum per migrant for countries that refuse to accept them under the solidarity mechanism.

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The idea of a mechanism for quotas

The positions of the 27 EU member states remain distant, but European sources have said an agreement could still be reached following a meeting of EU ambassadors on the proposed new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum on Wednesday.

According to the Swedish presidency and the European Commission, the draft proposal could provide for mandatory solidarity in hosting migrants, leaving to member states the choice between welcoming relocated migrants and refugees or paying a certain sum per migrant -- €22,000 -- if they refuse to accept them.

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski on Friday, May 26, slammed what he described as the "forced transfer" of migrants, as well as the "gross unfairness" of compensation.

Kaminski noted that the European executive pledged €200 to Warsaw for each Ukrainian refugee it hosted but would require Poland to pay €22,000 per migrant if it refuses to adhere to the relocation mechanism.

The idea being studied, well-informed sources said last week, is to introduce a mechanism of quotas based on objective data shared by states thanks to which the "adequate capacity" of each country to host migrants and refugees could be calculated.

Under the draft proposal, an annual threshold would also be established for countries of first arrival, after which the mechanism of reallocations or payments would kick in.

The hypothesis of asking each capital to pay €22,000 per migrant is still a working hypothesis. The objective of the draft proposal is to define a sum that is not too low to disincentivize solidarity, nor too high to be refused by eastern European countries or the countries of destination of the so-called 'secondary movement' of refugees and migrants within Europe.

Also read: EU working on possible national migrant quotas

Plan going 'in right direction, but more work necessary', Med5

Italy and the other so-called Med5 countries - Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Spain - believe that some of the proposals on migration put forward by the Swedish EU presidency go in the right direction but require further work in order to provide solutions that are effective and sustainable, diplomatic sources said after a meeting of EU ambassadors on the proposed new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum in Brussels on Wednesday, May 31.

The plan will now be discussed at a Home Affairs Council scheduled on June 8.European sources said after the meeting Wednesday that "there are points that still need to be discussed, but there is a clear desire on the part of the member states to reach a compromise and to continue the discussion."

Meanwhile on the migration front, the European Data Protection Supervisor said an investigation will soon kick off to examine alleged illegal data transfers from EU border agency Frontex to European law enforcement agency Europol, the latest development casting a shadow on the work carried out by officials of the border agency.