Most EU media report that French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin to discuss the tide of migrants reaching the European borders, considered by Migration Commissioner Avramopoulos as the “worst migrant crisis since WWII,” according to Proto Programma and Rai Due. Indeed, the crisis has been deepening during the last few days. On Monday, several thousand migrants crossed into Serbia, resuming a journey to Europe after the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) gave up its attempts to stem the flow of mainly Syrian refugees by force, Le Monde reports.
All media report that they both claimed that Europe needed to act together to deal with the chaotic scenes in Greece and the western Balkans as desperate migrants tried to reach the EU. Now, Germany and France are to draft common proposals on immigration and security to deal with the worsening emergency. In a brief statement ahead of talks on quotas for accepting migrants, Mr Hollande said: “We must put in place a unified system for the right to asylum,” Diário Económico quotes him as saying.
On Monday, Angela Merkel and François Hollande insisted on the need to move faster on the implementation of decisions made at a European level, such as the opening of “hotspots” in Italy and Greece before 2016. However, Italy and Greece, according to Il Messaggero, are calling for the redistribution of asylum-seekers – which must be equal and compulsory for all member states – otherwise no identification centre will be opened. The two leaders, as well as EC President Jean-Claude Juncker in his article, also said that the EU must draw up a unified list of safe countries of origin. Asylum seekers arriving from these countries should be swiftly returned. Moreover, Yesterday, Ms Merkel condemned the attack on 250 refugees carried out by a neo-Nazis in the German city of Heidenau, Corriere della Sera and sverigesradio.se write.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wrote in an article published in Le Figaro and Die Welt yesterday, as well as in Kathimerini, Rzeczpospolita, Aftonbladet.se and Repubblica.it today, that failure to be more generous and sharing toward refugees has created a Europe he doesn’t want to live in. “What we need, and what we are sadly still lacking, is the collective courage to follow through on our commitments even when they are not easy, even when they are not popular,” Jean-Claude Juncker wrote, as quoted by the Cyprus Mail. 24 Chasa daily also quotes him as saying that “We will never send back the people that come to us when they need protection.”
Italy’s President of the Chamber of Deputies Speaker Laura Boldrini, in a letter to La Repubblica’s editor, writes that Jean-Claude Juncker is right to say that Europe must not have walls preventing asylum-seekers, fleeing war and hunger, from entering the EU seeking a better life. Similarly, in an interview with La Repubblica, Agnès Heller, a Hungarian philosopher, agrees with President Juncker that Europe will lose its soul if it continues to build walls against migrants. Nevertheless, commenting on President Juncker’s article, Phileleftheros states that the question that should be asked is whether President Juncker will be able to change things as Commission President.
Several media comment on the situation. In an interview with Proto Programma, Head of EC Representation in Greece Panos Carvounis comments that the migration issue is a European problem and a solution can be found only if everyone in Europe shows good organisation and solidarity. According to Guillaum Goubert in an op-ed in La Croix, it is high time that Europe implements a truly welcoming policy for migrants, notably by affirming the right of asylum seekers from war-torn countries and establishing procedures to quickly process their applications.
Jędrzej Bielecki from Rzeczpospolita writes that the Schengen Treaty is no longer appropriate for our times and that EU Member States must draft a common immigration policy. Philip Johnston shares Jędrzej Bielecki’s view, arguing in the Telegraph that calls for “burden sharing” are meaningless, as the Schengen Agreement means that once migrants are in the EU, they can travel where they want. Europe must find a solution as soon as possible, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer stresses in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, as the migrant crisis might end up destroying Europe.
©europeanunion2015
