The European Commission has proposed speeding up the deportation of migrants who do not meet asylum seeker requirements.
Deportations would be voluntary and aim to help to reintegrate migrants in their home countries.
An internal document raises the possibility that member states could be fined if they do not meet proposed new deportation rules, Reuters reported.
The Commission hopes that by increasing the number of deportations, it can convince member states to open up more legal pathways to those granted asylum, and provide them with access to schools, healthcare, housing and jobs.
"The commission will pursue a better-functioning common EU system of returns," according to the document, dated February 10, using EU terminology for deportations.
The 12-page proposal is part of a broader commission plan launched last September to overhaul migration rules to resolve years of bitterness among the 27 EU states and provide a better welcome for refugees fleeing the Middle East and Africa.
The proposal states it was unrealistic to think that the EU could take in all migrants.
Only 30 per cent of those applying for asylum for the first time in 2019 were recognised as needing protection, it said. Of the failed attempts, EU states returned home just a third of them. Few were willing to go voluntarily.
The Commission proposal, which must be agreed by all 27 EU states, aims to create a voluntary system where migrants are helped to reintegrate into their home countries with money and other EU support.
"The Commission will adopt a voluntary return and reintegration strategy," the document said, adding that the bloc could broaden its aid and counselling programmes for returnees.
"Voluntary returns combined with effective reintegration strategies increase the acceptance and success rates of these operations."
Feuds over where to locate people have caused tensions between the Mediterranean-shore countries where they mainly arrive, the reluctant eastern states, and the richer northern states where many of the newcomers aspire to live.
The bloc's approach to migrant arrivals is routinely criticised by member states and international NGOs, and blamed by some for the rise of far-right politics across the continent since the 2015 migrant crisis.
More than a million people made it to EU shores in 2015, overwhelming security and welfare networks.
The EU now receives up to 1.5 million new foreigners coming legally to live and work every year while only 140,000 asylum seekers arrive illegally.
In the UK last year, the ruling Conservative Party said it wanted to carry out the "biggest overhaul" of its immigration system, with those who enter the country illegally to be denied asylum.
New rules would welcome people through "safe and legal routes" and stop those who arrived illegally "making endless legal claims to remain".
Interior minister Priti Patel said there would be a fair asylum system that would "provide safe haven to those fleeing persecution, oppression or tyranny".
