European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday urged EU ministers to back plans to relocate 160,000 refugees from swamped border states at a crisis meeting next week.

"It is 160,000 that Europe has to take into their arms, this has to be done in a compulsory way. I call on the (European) Council to agree to take 160,000 at the interior ministers' meeting on September 14," Juncker said in a speech to the European Parliament.

Juncker was referring to a new emergency relocation scheme of 120,000 refugees from overstretched Italy, Greece and Hungary, combined with a similar scheme for 40,000 refugees in Italy and Greece that he unveiled in May.