The European Commission sent letters to 19 EU Member States, including France, Germany and Spain, warning them that they face penalties for not respecting the European legislation concerning the reception of asylum seekers.
"It is time that Member States do what they have to do," said Vice President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, in press conference hours before EU leaders in Brussels to participate in an extraordinary summit on the crisis of migrants.
"A common asylum system can work only if each country respects the rules," said Timmermans.
European rules establish "minimum standards" for the reception of asylum seekers and legally oblige Member States to ensure that those who ask for international protection have access to the "material conditions" stipulated. These include access to housing, food, health protection and psychological support and employment.
It also restricts the arrest of the "vulnerable", including minors.
These rules were completed in July this year, but the flow of hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing the war in the Middle East and Africa, or seeking better opportunities, took reception infrastructure saturation.
Interior ministers agreed on Tuesday the distribution of 120,000 asylum seekers in the EU.
The letters of the Commission are the first step in infringement proceedings 40 in addition to 35 already open.
Timmermans said that only five Member States fully transposed the EU rules into national law.
Most of these 40 infringement proceedings is mainly due to the lack of notification by Member States to the Commission on how transposed national rules for the reception of refugees.