The European Commission has on Friday invited EU state and government representatives, the so-called "sherpas", to Brussels to discuss the new initiative.
According to diplomats, in a sign of disapproval, Lithuania and the majority of other countries from the region sent lower-rank diplomats to the meeting.
"Under previous commitments, Lithuania already decided to resettle 70 refugees from Turkey, and we have no plans to get involved in any new scheme at this stage. Therefore, Lithuania is represented at the meeting by a diplomat from the Lithuanian Representation to the EU," Renaldas Vaisbrodas, chief foreign policy adviser to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.
Brussels is set to present the new plan on the resettlement of refugees from Turkey during the EU summit on Dec. 17-18. Diplomats say the new program is planned as a voluntary scheme as yet and no decision on a new number of refugees to be accepted have not been made yet.
Germany is the main supporter of the new initiative, saying that it will help to turn illegal migration into legal. People behind the initiative believe that by accepting refugees, the EU would convince Turkey to step up its border control and cut the flow of migrants from Greece.
France , Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden, Greece and possibly the Netherlands and Finland are considering joining the new scheme, according to Reuters news agency.
EU countries have already agreed to share out 160,000 asylum seekers who are now in Italy and Greece. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia were the major opponent to the plan. Meanwhile, Lithuania took a more moderate position and accepted Brussels' proposal to accept 1,105 refugees over the next two years.
There are now over 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
