Merkel Scrambles For Answer to Migrant Invasion: Proposes Very German Solution of Internment Camps
The EU summit in Brussels has ended. Its main topic was refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. Actually, those are the people, who want to escape the unbearable conditions which they found themselves in as a result of the Western nation's activities: the invasion of Iraq, hostilities in Libya and subversive activities in Syria. There are millions of refugees. The EU is now trying to clear up this mess. At first, Angela Merkel invited the refugees to Europe, but she clearly underestimated the flow of people and the EU capability to receive everyone. This shattered her position as well. It even came to an ultimatum by Seehofer, her own government's Minister of the Interior. Merkel should either find a solution to the migration problem for the whole of Europe or the Seehofer's security forces close the German border for the refugees. The deadline for Merkel expires in 2 weeks. And so Merkel, just like Cinderella, had to meet it. Otherwise, her coachman would turn into a rat, her horses into mice, her carriage into a pumpkin and her dress into rags. Merkel succeeded. But not without losses.
To put it simply, the summit in Brussels decided to build concentration camps for potential migrants in their homeland. Of course, they have a more neutral name: centers. There refugees will go through filtration. There'll also be concentrating centers in Europe, like ghetto.
The Italians insisted on revising the Dublin Regulation, according to which the first member state who receives migrants is responsible for them. It was agreed to modify the Dublin Regulations later, but still to restrict the movement of migrants within the Schengen Area, meaning that it isn't for everybody. It's in broad strokes.
Mikhail Antonov, the chief of our European bureau, will give more details.
The EU Summit was somewhat like the medieval Pope's elections in Viterbo. Angela Merkel went to Brussels with the intention to lock herself in and to dismantle the roof over the European Council if needed, to keep everyone under lock and key until the Common migration plan was signed. To save herself, or more like for the hope for it, the Chancellor had to solve several tasks, including the one, which existed back 750 years ago: to make peace between the Italians and the French. They started at 16:00 on Thursday and Rome gave up only at 5:30 on Friday morning.
Angela Merkel: "I hope that this is a good sign. We have agreed on the common text on what is probably the most complex problem of the EU".
The common text, which is the main thing, turned out to be remarkable both for the contents and for the things completely absent. Europe decided to finance the building of the Accommodation Centers for the migrants, caught in the Mediterranean Sea, in Africa, primarily in Libya, and in European countries, voluntarily.
Emmanuel Macron: "Those centers are the response to the call for solidarity without changes to the common European rules. And I believe this is both the compromise and the response to the Italian aid request".
People will be held in those centers till their fate is decided. The path from open doors to concentration camps took three years. Greetings to the values. But this is the current harmony as it is, against the background of rowboats, packed with migrants, pulling in at the European shores. During the summit, the small island of Malta received 200 more people at once. Italy used to receive them too, but now it's over. Moreover, Rome insists on revising the Dublin Regulation, under which the migrants are to be accomodated in the country of their primary registration. Italy, in this case, is one of the scapegoats. It's good that just a promise to work out a reform calmed Italy down. "You'd better not deceive us", – warned the Italian Minister of the Interior. France also owes them one.
Matteo Salvini, the Italian Minister of the Interior: "I'll act like Saint Thomas: I won't believe until I see myself. The EU has made fools of us many times. If France sticks to the signed agreement, it will have to open doors for 9,000 refugees, who are in Italy now. And only then Macron will get back the right to preach and open his mouth".
Seems like peace, for now. The Frontex border security will be strengthened by 2020 and the issue with the outer borders is considered to be solved. It's more difficult with the interior borders: no more quota, no more common approach, again. Migrant reception on a voluntary basis.
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are quite happy with that.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland: "What we have achieved, can be called the great success of Poland. And if someone wants to receive the refugees, do as you wish."
The Visegrád Group got theirs, Italy got theirs. Macron arrived already happy after Germany's consent to create a Eurozone budget. Meanwhile, the Swedish Prime Minister, even though he signed the agreement, is not happy with the things, which, for example, Poland is happy with. The secondary migration strangles his country. There is still no refugee distribution system inside the EU.
Stefan Löfven, the Prime Minister of Sweden: "This system should be based on the rights of the asylum seekers and also on the sustainably functioning order of resettlement".
The freedom of movement for the refugees, or those who pretend to be ones, to a richer place, was the reason for the conflict between Angela Merkel and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. So to extinguish the burning chancellor's chair, she has to, in fact, instigate a partial dismantlement of the EU. Germany will solve readmission issues on a bilateral basis. By persuading, in most complicated cases by money, Merkel managed to get 14 countries to comply with the Dublin Regulation, which they promised Italy to revise.
Angela Merkel: "Greece and Spain are ready to receive those, who have already given their fingerprints".
Now the core question is if the CSU and its leader Horst Seehofer will be satisfied with this. Today the activist group of his party conducted intensive consultations. It has been leaked that Bavarian conservatives are not satisfied with the results of the summit. The Bild newspaper says that according to Seehofer, all Merkel's achievements will lead only to an increased refugee influx to Germany. Will he decide to boost the government crisis in this context by closing the German borders against the chancellor's will? Or, maybe, only the borders of Bavaria, as he threatened to do. It's unclear now. It's clear that the conflict has not been settled yet. More like veiled by hours of negotiations, plans, numbers and other political special effects. And they cost a lot for Germany. Even if the conflict between the chancellor and the Minister of the Interior doesn't unfold dramatically, Merkel has already made something that a politician of her level can't do: she clearly showed her pressure points to the whole world, gave the German domestic political stability into the hands of her EU partners. That is, she made Germany dependant on someone else's will: to fulfill or not to fulfill the taken responsibilities.
Mikhail Antonov, Alexander Korostelev, and Andrey Putra, Vesti — News of the Week, Germany.