The European Commission is pushing for changes to the bloc's asylum laws, as the refugee and migrant crisis continues to test the legislative body.
Commissioners want to alter what's known as the Dublin Regulation- which forces the country where asylum seekers first enter Europe to process their claims.
Greece has a huge burden on its hands. So far, this year more than 150,000 refugees and migrants have landed in the country.
And because of current European Union asylum laws-it's Greece's role to process their asylum requests even if the asylum seekers have dreams of making it to western Europe.
"This is neither fair nor sustainable given the reality of volumes of people which has put a huge burden on just a few very number of member states," said Frans Timmermans, Vice President, European Commission.
So to ease that burden…commissioners want to change the EU's asylum law called the Dublin Regulation.
Option one, the commission wants to add a "fairness clause" to the law-allowing countries like Greece to call a crisis if it can't handle the flood of refugee and migrant arrivals. Other European countries would then help process a chunk of the asylum claims.
Option two, an overhaul of the current law by distributing refugees and migrants across Europe so each EU country would process it's fair share. Commissioners insist either option would work.
"We a need a fairer sharing of responsibility and more solidarity ingrained in our systems," said Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration.
But now the question is will EU countries like the Commission's proposals? Many countries like Austria and Hungary have put in place tough border controls to deal with the influx of migrants and refugees -so they may not be eager to change the Dublin Regulation.
Because of those strict border controls, thousands of refugees and migrants hoping to head west remain stuck in Greece.
While changing the Dublin regulation won't be an easy sell, refugee advocates are banking on Europe agreeing to work together so in turn the hardship of hundreds of thousands will be eased.
"I think that the recent serious crisis in the European Union as a result of the backlog of processing of migrants and immigrants will certainly concentrate political minds and it is to be hoped at least some reforms will happen, if not a complete reform of the Dublin regulation," said Deirdre De Burca, World Vision.
The commissioners say they'll begin to discuss the proposals to the 28 European Union member states to see which countries they can count on to support changing the law.
