While boats transporting refugees from Turkey keep arriving to the Greek islands and death toll keeps increasing, European media continue to widely comment on the refugee crisis. Most media notably reveal that the number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea in October was roughly the same as in the whole of 2014, i.e. 218,394 people, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Monday. Most media also report that yesterday, the European Commission announced an additional €43 million in humanitarian aid to support Syrian refugees and their host communities in Lebanon, most media report.
Announcing the new funding allocation on a visit today to Lebanon, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides said that “we have to support Lebanon for being a generous host to such a large number of Syrian refugees,” Sigmalive.com quotes him as saying. Meanwhile, Greek media and La Razon report that the Greek government is preparing a celebratory event in Athens for the departure of 30 refugees and their relocation in Luxembourg.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, EC Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, EP President Martin Schulz, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy Giannis Mouzalas will attend the event. A UNHCR spokesman said one of the factors behind the influx was Germany’s “very generous” asylum policy, media add. Finally, in an interview with Politiken and Ta Nea newspapers, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri asked for the immediate contribution of the Greek authorities and for the full support of the European governments, in order to overcome the serious difficulties in the management of the unprecedented inflow of refugees to Europe.
The refugee crisis has revealed shocking facts, states the editorial article in Die Presse, notably claiming that the EU and the European Commission are currently disgracing themselves utterly. Several media write that while the EU showed remarkable unity during the Ukrainian and Greek crises, the member states are now dominated by individual interests, lack of courage and ignorance, risking a break-up of the EU. MTV 3 and Politiken report that Austria has erected a fence along its border, and politicians in Germany and Slovenia are talking about doing the same.
According to Mandag Morgen, it is not unlikely that Sweden will also choose to close its borders due to the influx of refugees. According to The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The International New York Times and Publico, Greece’s Prime Minister said that he felt “ashamed of Europe’s inability in dealing with this human drama, as European leaders keep shifting the blame to the other.” Martin Staudinger writes in the editorial article in Profil magazine that the danger of the refugee crisis are not the refugees themselves, but a potential failure of the EU and its system of values.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs EC Vice-President Federica Mogherini is aware of this risk, as she told the Guardian. “There is a risk of collapse,” she said. “Because when you’re facing a challenge and you don’t have the instruments to do it, you risk failing. So it could be that if we don’t manage to create common instruments to deal with this on a European level, we fall back on the illusion that we can face it through national instruments, which we see very clearly doesn’t work. Either we take this big step and adapt, or yes, we do have a major crisis. I would say even an identity crisis.” Last week, EC President Jean-Claude Juncker also stated that divisions among member states are hurting the solidarity in Europe, DR2 reports.
Writing in El País’ op-ed pages, former Le Monde editor Jean-Marie Colombani brings a bit of lightness, setting out two reasons not to be afraid of refugees: in the first place, the EU is the largest area of prosperity worldwide; secondly, the arrival of refugees could help make up for Europe’s demographic decline, reinforcing its potential growth prospects.
©europeanunion2015
