January 21, 2016
12:41 pm
EU
told it has 6 weeks to save Schengen border-free travel
Gideon Rachman in
Davos and Andrew Byrne in Budapest
Mark Rutte, the
Dutch prime minister, has warned that the EU has “six to eight
weeks” to save the Schengen system of border-free travel.
Mr Rutte said at the
World Economic Forum in Davos that the arrival of spring weather
would see an increase of refugee flows that could cause an
irretrievable breakdown in the system, as member countries move to
restore frontier controls.
Wolfgang Schäuble,
the German finance minister, told the same panel in Davos that the EU
needed to initiate a “Marshall Plan” to foster economic
development in the countries bordering Europe. The goal would be to
stem refugee flows by creating better economic conditions in the
Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Schäuble, who is
known to be careful with German taxpayers’ money, acknowledged that
such a plan would cost billions. Asked whether Germany, which
received more than 1m would-be refugees in 2015, could cope with
another 1m in 2016, Mr Schäuble replied that he did not even want to
think about such a question.
There has already
been some erosion of the Schengen system, with Sweden’s recent
restoration of checks on its border with Denmark in response to
refugee flows. Mr Rutte said that 35,000 people had crossed the sea
from Turkey to Greece so far this year, compared with 1,700 in the
whole of January 2015. He suggested that unless the EU improved its
response, the current rate of crossings could quadruple in a few
weeks as the weather improves. “We cannot cope with the numbers any
longer,” he said.
The Dutch prime
minister called for urgent action to be taken, including the
implementation of an EU-Turkish deal on refugee flows, the
strengthening of the EU’s external frontier and the implementation
of agreements on sharing refugees around the EU.
The debate on
Schengen comes as EU governments struggle to control a refugee influx
that shows little signs of abating. UN High Commissioner for Refugees
officials said this week more than 2,000 were arriving in Serbia from
Macedonia daily, enduring temperatures as low as -19C on their
journey.
Macedonia
temporarily closed its border with Greece to migrants on Wednesday
night, citing transit hold-ups further north along the route. The
closure came hours after Austria announced a cap on asylum claims of
37,500 for whole of 2016.
Peter Szijjarto,
Hungary’s foreign minister, said the closure, which left at least
600 people trapped at the Greece-Macedonia border, was the
“inevitable consequence” of Greece “not doing its share of the
Schengen obligations”.
Miro Cerar,
Slovenia’s prime minister, has urged other EU countries to jointly
deploy police forces and other resources to Macedonia’s border with
Greece, saying that Athens was under “immense pressure”.
The EU is struggling
to respond to a surge of desperate migrants that has resulted in
thousands of deaths since the beginning of the year
Mr Cerar also warned
that any new border restrictions by northern countries would prompt
similar moves by Ljubljana and its neighbours.
“If Austria adopts
measures to reduce the inflow of refugees, Slovenia will have to
immediately react and we will notify Croatia about our measures,”
local press quoted the prime minister as saying. “We are in contact
with Austria and I hope that we will be informed on time about their
decisions.”
● Questions about
the prospect of Britain voting to leave the EU elicited a degree of
unanimity from European leaders in Davos. Mr Schäuble said a UK
departure would be a “disaster”, while Manuel Valls, the French
prime minister, said it would be a “tragedy”, adding that
“nothing could be worse than to see a member state leave”.
Earlier, in comments
to journalists, Mr Valls cast doubt on the idea the British
government would secure agreement on a package of reforms to keep it
in the bloc at the next EU summit in February. Negotiations would
“need more time”, he suggested.
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