How should the European Union deal with refugees aiming to reach the shores of Europe? It can be said that the difficulty of forming a consensus on the matter in the EU has been highlighted anew with the emergence of xenophobic political parties in EU countries.
At a summit meeting, EU leaders agreed to build new migrant centers in the bloc. The decision was aimed at dealing with refugees and migrants who are coming to Italy and other countries from North Africa via the Mediterranean Sea.
It is reasonable that the centers are aimed at quickly sorting out refugees, who should be protected from political persecution, from illegal migrants with economic motivations. But the meeting has stopped short of saying where the centers will be set up, leaving the locations in the hands of each member nation.
The EU said that it will consider setting up screening facilities in North Africa, too, but it is unclear whether it could win agreement from the relevant countries. Under such circumstances, the planned measure falls far short of resolving the refugee issue.
The difficulties at the EU summit meeting were caused by the hard-line stance taken by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. His coalition government, founded last month, includes a right-wing anti-refugee party.
Conte called for changing EU rules under which screening is conducted by the country where refugee applicants arrived first. He also strongly requested that the EU set quotas for the acceptance of refugees by its member countries.
His argument is that Italy and other coastal nations of the Mediterranean Sea have borne an excessive burden in accepting the refugees. But the decision on whether to accept his request has been postponed due to widely differing views among Italy and other EU countries.
Improving border control key
Hungary, Poland and other member nations, which have kept their distance from the EU's humanitarian approach, have refused to accept the quotas of refugees allocated to them. It will not be an easy task for the EU to unite and compile a viable policy to cope with the refugee issue.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reached an agreement with a regional party, a partner in her coalition government, on measures to curb the inflow of refugees. Under the accord, Germany will not accept in principle refugees coming to the country after arriving in Italy and other coastal nations of the Mediterranean Sea.
The accord was reached because the regional party had threatened to leave the coalition government from a sense of crisis felt toward a right-wing party that has been gaining strength in its home state.
The policy shift by Merkel, who had taken a generous refugee policy, symbolizes the magnitude of the turmoil in European politics over the refugee issue. It has been a bone of contention in the national elections of EU member countries and the advance of political parties opposing acceptance of refugees has not stopped.
The EU has long expanded freedom of movement within the bloc. The inflow of an enormous amount of refugees in 2015 brought the lesson that free movement would bring about further confusion if the inflow of people from outside the bloc is not controlled strictly.
Nevertheless, the EU has delayed its improvement of border control arrangements, thereby causing distrust among some member nations. With respect to the policies for refugees and migrants and national border control, EU member nations may accelerate moves to take countermeasures on an individual basis.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 4, 2018)
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