European Union leaders will discuss further curbing immigration from across the Mediterranean on Thursday, but are as divided as ever on how to care for refugees who make it to Europe.
EU chairman, Donald Tusk, proposed creating a new financing tool in the bloc’s next multi-year budget from 2021 to “stem illegal migration”, replacing ad hoc calls for money EU states made since arrivals peaked in 2015.
Despite heavy criticism by human rights groups it is aggravating the suffering of refugees and migrants on the southern shores of the Mediterranean the EU is sticking to its policy of providing assistance to governments and UN agencies in the Middle East and Africa to prevent people making the trek north.
While implementing these plans in some places, notably the lawless Libya, is proving difficult, all EU states and institutions in Brussels agree on the approach.
The question of how to handle refugees who made it to the EU is as divisive now as it was two years ago.
Italy, Greece and other frontline states on the Mediterranean, as well as the rich destination countries such as Germany, want all member states obliged to take in a set allocation of asylum-seekers.
Several eastern ex-communist EU members reject mandatory quotas, saying accepting Muslim refugees undermines sovereignty and security and the homogeneous make-up of their societies.
They want to help instead with money, equipment and personnel to control the bloc’s frontiers.
The Commission is already suing Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for failing to take in their allotment of asylum-seekers from the peak of the EU migrant crisis in 2015.
DIVISIONS
Recent proposals for future solutions go in opposite directions, giving little hope of a deal by the June target date.
The bloc’s current chair Estonia suggested sticking to the obligatory scheme when immigration is extremely high, but adding flexibility by legislating receiving and sending states must agree on relocation.
That plan has been dismissed as a non-starter by diplomats from several EU states.
The bloc’s executive, the European Commission, proposed the bloc approve compulsory and automatic relocation in times of mass immigration, but rely on voluntary help in normal circumstances. The European Parliament wants mandatory relocation at all times, regardless of migratory pressures.
Tusk has come out against quotas, telling EU leaders in a note they had proven “highly divisive” and “ineffective”.
The Commission’s migration chief, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told a news conference on Tuesday Tusk’s paper was “undermining one of the main pillars of the European project – the principle of solidarity”.
For now, immigration figures remain so low compared to the peak of 2015-2016 that public pressure on EU leaders to come up with a quick fix has eased.
This could change with Italy’s parliamentary election next spring, coinciding with the start of a new migration season.
Germany, currently trying to form a new government, has long suggested if no consensus can be reached, an asylum reform could be passed by majority vote – something that would inevitably deepen the divisions and mistrust between member states.
