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According to officials briefed on the proposal, which will be unveiled next week in Juncker’s first state of the union address before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the migrants to be resettled would be those currently overwhelming authorities in Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Adding Hungary to the list would be a change from the July agreement, and may split the growing unity between central and eastern European countries opposing the new quota system.

Juncker’s address, scheduled for Wednesday morning, is expected to kick off a dash to come up with a new solution to the mounting migrant crisis ahead of an emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on September 14.

The Juncker package will include a new permanent relocation scheme for migrants that would automatically divvy up arriving migrants, officials said. It will also include new rules preventing citizens from EU candidate countries from claiming political asylum — a move aimed at preventing growing numbers of Balkan migrants moving into the EU through Hungary from Bosnia and Kosovo.

Officials said it will also include a “trust fund” for north Africa, which will be aimed at helping stabilize many of the countries where the migrants come from.

Natasha Bertaud, the European Commission spokesperson for migration issues, acknowledged that Juncker’s new plan would expand beyond Greece and Italy to include Hungary, but declined to comment on plans to increase the migrant quota before Juncker’s address.

“We’re not going to comment on leaks, rumors or gossip,” Bertaud said at the commission’s regular midday press briefing.

The Juncker plans come as eastern EU states rethink their staunch opposition to a plan to share migrants through a quota system as the migrant crisis escalates and pressure from western states such as Germany begins to take its toll.

Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will hold an emergency meeting on Friday after a fortnight in which 71 migrants were found dead in an abandoned lorry in Austria and scenes of chaos enveloped Europe’s railway stations and highways.

With the frontline of a crisis in which 350,000 people have entered Europe this year shifting from the Greek islands to Budapest, officials acknowledge the emergence of a more serious phase.

“The atmosphere and the details of what we are dealing with now are much, much different to the last time we discussed it,” said a senior Polish government official. “The challenge seems more real.”

Countries in the so-called Visegrad group also face growing pressure from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who has warned that the prized Schengen zone may come under question if countries do not agree to burden-sharing.

Free movement of people, under the Schengen agreement, has been hugely beneficial to Visegrad countries, from which hundreds of thousands have migrated to western states since joining the EU in 2004.

“Frankly it is just dangerous to invoke the [Schengen] issue.....it just causes panic,” said one senior diplomat from the region. “Everyone is against eliminating Schengen. It is a basic, central part of what makes the EU the EU. Everyone in this part of the EU is against undermining it.”

Merkel’s comments and France’s pointed attacks on Visegrad countries for their hardline rhetoric startled senior officials from the bloc, who told the Financial Times that they felt singled out for “pressure and criticism”.

The EU is struggling to respond to a growing refugee crisis that has resulted in an estimated 1,600 deaths in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.

While officials in Slovakia said they remained opposed to compulsory migrant quotas, which the Visegrad group helped block in July, officials elsewhere were more conciliatory.

Rafal Trzaskowski, Poland’s Europe minister, said on Tuesday that Warsaw would “show solidarity… on the refugee issue”.

A senior official in Budapest said: “The magnitude of migration has changed, so we have to revisit the situation. But we need to have a genuine and moderate discussion and we need to address the lack of proper border controls in some Mediterranean countries.”

Hungary, whose southern border forms the EU’s south-eastern frontier, has become the latest flashpoint. Budapest has drawn particular criticism from western member states which portrayed the populist rhetoric of Viktor Orban, the prime minister, and the country’s anti-migrant razor wire fence as “scandalous” and out of step with European values.

Officials in Hungary dismissed the criticism. “It’s appalling and unacceptable that some politicians claim Hungary’s response to the crisis is against European values. We are not against migrants or refugees, we are against illegal and uncontrolled migration,” said Szabolcs Takacs, state secretary.

Even as officials from the region moderate their stance, many remain skeptical about quotas.

They argue that quotas fail to remedy the fundamental problem and can encourage more migrants to make the dangerous journey to Europe. Instead they propose that more be done to deter economic migrants they say are masquerading as refugees, tighten the EU’s external borders and review the widely criticised Dublin III rules that require migrants to remain in the first country in which they claim asylum.

“Migration is a dirty business,” said one Czech diplomat. “Quotas do not solve anything. We want to talk about prevention, not accommodation.”

Prague was willing to talk about increasing the voluntary intake of migrants, he added.

President Dalia Grybauskaite says that Lithuania will show solidarity in solving migration crisis in Europe.

The head of state says the situation has changed radically since spring and summer and the migration crisis has worsened. According to the president, it is thought that the crisis is the largest movement of people, even bigger than in the Second World War.

Grybauskaite told the national radio that the problem is indeed massive and has to be taken very seriously. According to her, all countries have to show understanding and solidarity with the states facing the largest inflow of immigrants and respond to Germany's call to deal with the issue constructively.

"Lithuania has undoubtedly heard and understands the call to seek for a joint solution with all European countries. This means that we must be ready to help those in dire need, especially refugees of war. We must not remain indifferent. This is not because someone has recommended so. We perceive our responsibility perfectly well. We understand the element of solidarity that applies to us. We felt solidarity when our security was ensured, financial solidarity when Lithuania was in deep crisis. Lithuania is a European country and we will solve the issue together with all countries," said Grybauskaite.

When asked how the problem would be solved, Grybauskaite replied that it would be decided together with European Union member states.

"We will consider together with the Government how Lithuania may contribute. The new model of common European migration policy will be revised and created. Already on 14 September the interior ministers will meet, Lithuania will be represented by Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis. We will talk. We must hear, see and solve the problem together," the head of state stressed.

Prime Minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Butkevicius, says migrant quotas for every European Union (EU) member state may be revised.

According to the head of Government, migration crisis will be addressed at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. Its meeting has not been scheduled yet, but it is known that Lithuania will follow the principle of solidarity.

"We very well understand the problems that Germany and Hungary face at the moment. Of course, Hungary's approach differs. () I believe quotas may be reviewed once again for every EU member state and, of course, we () will show solidarity on the issue," the prime minister told radio Ziniu Radijas.

Butkevicius did not forecast what quota might be applied to Lithuania, but emphasised that this is the problem of the whole Union.

Speaking about integration of refugees in Lithuania, the prime minister said that the country was getting ready for this and the minister of social security and labour was meeting on Thursday with mayors of municipalities to address accommodation of the first migrants in Lithuania in several months.

"We have prepared to accommodate the first (migrants – ELTA), funds have been provided, but the next step would be for them to settle in certain municipalities. A training programme is planned so they would learn some Lithuanian and gain certain working skills. The programmes have been prepared and remain to be implemented," said Butkevicius.