Current tensions over the migration issue are high within the European Union (EU) countries, with some countries tightening their border controls. Why are such measures being implemented without consultation with other member countries?
The answer to this question is of course complex, between real difficulties in defining and above all respecting a common migration policyunfavourable feelings – to put it mildly – from more and more European citizens, dramatic and repeated news items involving migrants, fear of Islamism and terrorism among Muslim migrants – even if we are in fact talking about a tiny minority –, and political exploitation of all these phenomena by nationalist and populist groups which continue to gain votes in each election in Europe.
How are EU states reacting to this situation?
This complex situation increasingly leads to of European states to adopt, often unilaterally, restrictive measures against migrants: closing of borders, expulsion to countries at war, outsourcing envisaged or underway to process asylum applications outside the EU area…
Hungary and Germany raise their voices
Viktor Orban’s Hungary, a long-standing opponent of Brussels’ decisions on this migration issue, has just chartered dozens of buses to transport hundreds or thousands of migrants from the south of the country to Brussels, precisely in order to present European leaders with a fait accompli, on the theme: ” This can’t go on like this “.
Even more serious is the decision of the German Chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, to close the country’s borders from Monday, September 16. A measure taken in haste, in the aftermath of the Solingen tragedy and after the impressive scores in regional elections, in Saxony and especially in Thuringia, of two populist and anti-migrant parties, one from the far right, the AFD, and the other from the left, the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht.
In doing so, Germany is leaving, without consultation with neighbouring countries, including France, the Schengen area which governs the free movement of goods and people within the signatory countries of the Union.
Migration pact in sight
After difficult months of negotiations, the European Union has adopted a pact. Intended precisely to manage migratory flows with greater firmness, but with humanity, this pact will not come into force until 2026. It must also better distribute the reception effort between the countries of arrival and the others. In view of the current tensions on this issue, one may wonder whether this pact will indeed come into force in 2026.
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