Unimpressive EU refugee deal exposes divisions
BRUSSELS — The European Union decided Friday to share 40,000 of the refugees landing in Italy and Greece but footdragging and verbal sniping over the move exposed deep divisions about how to deal with Europe’s massive migrant influx.
While the size of the challenge is daunting, the EU’s response has been underwhelming. More than 114,000 migrants fleeing wars or poverty have been plucked from the Mediterranean so far this year as they try to cross in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats. Some 2,600 have died or are missing along the route, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“It is — to tell the disturbing truth — a very modest effort,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday after EU leaders agreed at a summit to decide by late July on how to distribute the refugees.
“It’s not a big number,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said. “For Italy it’s a small help, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Greece and Italy have been swamped by the arrivals, while Hungary and Bulgaria are also under pressure from thousands of migrants travelling over land. Things are likely to get worse amid the summer high season.
Radical action is being taken around Europe in response. Hungary has pledged to build a fence to keep out the torrent of migrants crossing its border with Serbia. France and Italy have been at loggerheads over the movement of migrants along their common border. Police have dismantled migrant camps in northern France, where people are hoping to cross to Britain.
Greece and Italy have been accused of not properly screening arrivals, allowing them to move deeper into the EU.
In an effort to ease some of their burden, Juncker’s team has tried to force northern EU countries to share the burden, but any notion of mandatory migrant quotas for each country was rejected at the summit.
Around a dozen EU nations oppose the obligatory quota plan. A further 12 that would support it want the method for sharing out the refugees reassessed.