The ministers will try to narrow a yawning divide over how to share responsibility for thousands of migrants arriving daily and ease the burden on frontline states.
Their talks will focus on distributing 160,000 refugees over the next two years.
The arrival of around 500,000 migrants so far this year has taken the EU by surprise and it has responded slowly.
The ministers will confirm the distribution of an initial 40,000 refugees, but this scheme was conceived in May and some nations still do not plan to do their full share before year's end.