Cologne
attacks ‘nail in the coffin’ of EU refugee policy
Migration
commissioner says EU policies have failed.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
1/14/16, 3:39 PM CET Updated 1/14/16, 4:13 PM CET
The EU’s refugee
policy is a failure and the mass sexual assaults in Cologne were a
“nail in the coffin,” senior officials said Thursday.
In a bleak meeting
with MEPs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the top EU official in charge of
migration, said a plan to relocate 160,000 refugees across Europe
“does not work.” He added that if member countries “act on the
pressure of the domestic agenda, it will fail.”
“I agree that it
[the relocation program] has not delivered the expected results,”
the migration commissioner said, adding that the scheme “can only
give results when it will start working.”
The numbers show it
isn’t working. Only 272 people have been relocated so far,
according to Commission figures.
Avramopoulos’
remarks are a change of tone for the Commission. EU officials have so
far responded to criticism by saying that the relocation scheme is
new, and patience is required.
The change of
rhetoric comes as diplomats become increasingly concerned at the lack
of results from the agenda on migration presented by the Commission
in May 2015.
“What happened in
Cologne risks being the final nail in the coffin,” said one
diplomat of the mass sexual attacks in the German city on New Year’s
Eve. Many of the attackers were identified as refugees.
“If some countries
already … were reluctant to take in single men, you can imagine
what will happen now,” the diplomat said.
People walk past
flowers and letters of protest in front of the Cologne Hauptbahnhof
train station, where the NYE sex assaults occurred | Getty
Avramopoulos said
that if any of the Cologne attackers turn out to be refugees, they
“must be put in prison if they cannot be sent back” to their home
countries. The German government has threatened to deport any
asylum-seekers found guilty. But legal experts claim that will not be
easy if they come from war-torn countries such as Syria.
The future is no
brighter for the coming year, the Greek commissioner told lawmakers
on the Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs.
“The situation is
getting worse,” Avramopoulos said, adding that “the goal is to
see tangible results by the European Council in February” — a
reference to a summit of EU leaders at which the issue will be
revisited. But he acknowledged that the European asylum system “needs
to be rethought.”
Avramopoulos told
MEPs that the Commission hopes in March to present a revision of the
Dublin system, which requires that the country through which a
refugee enters the EU becomes responsible for processing paperwork.
That puts a huge burden on Greece and Italy. He said the Commission
is also working on a permanent resettlement scheme for refugees
outside the bloc and new rules on legal migration.
One of the
cornerstones of the EU’s strategy has been to get help from Turkey
in stemming the flow of refugees into Europe. But the commissioner
acknowledged that this too has not been a success.
“We cannot be
satisfied with the speed of implementation” of the EU-Turkey action
plan approved in November, the commissioner said. “We need to see
results.”
Europe pledged to
give Turkey an initial €3 billion to tackle the refugee crisis in
exchange for re-energized EU membership talks with Ankara.
Although
Avramopoulos said he was “not very optimistic” about the future,
he warned that the Schengen passport-free area must be protected. “If
it collapses it will be the beginning of the end of the European
project,” he said. “If borders are closed, the economy will be at
stake.”
Towards the end of
the debate, an MEP told Avramopoulos: “You have the most difficult
job in the EU.”
No one disagreed.
Authors:
Jacopo Barigazzi
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário