The legal basis for the proposal is the emergency response mechanism under Article 78 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, which would now be activated for the first time.
The mechanism would apply to Syrian and Eritrean nationals in need of international protection who arrived in Italy or Greece after April 15 or who arrive there after the mechanism is launched.
A total of 40,000 people, 24,000 from Italy and 16,000 from Greece, are to be relocated to other EU member states in accordance with a distribution key based on several criteria, such as the size of the population, the unemployment rate and the number of refugees previously taken in.
Under the distribution key, Croatia should take in 1.87 per cent of the total number of refugees, or 448 from Italy and 299 from Greece.
Member states will receive 6,000 euros for each person relocated on their territory. EUR 240 million has been set aside for the European Fund for Asylum, Migration and Integration over the next two years.
The Commission also presented a recommendation for the resettlement of 20,000 people from outside the EU, who are entitled to international protection. According to the Commission's calculation, Croatia should take in 315 of those people, or 1.58 per cent.
The Commission wants both programmes to be obligatory.