The President of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, has called for a fundamental change of course in the EU’s refugee policy. “The EU states are sleepwalking into a new, major migration crisis,” said the deputy CSU chairman to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday editions). “The municipalities groan, the capacity for migrants via the Mediterranean routes is exhausted.”
EU summit on migration is imminent
Before the EU special summit on migration in February, Weber proposed a three-point plan that envisages fences at the external borders, asylum applications outside the EU and a new edition of European sea rescue.
“Fences are always the last resort, but we need them wherever gangs of people smugglers successfully try to circumvent European law,” said Weber. As examples he named the EU’s eastern border, the Mediterranean region and the border between Bulgaria and Greece and Turkey.
Weber also called for “substantial changes in the asylum procedures” that do not necessarily have to take place in the European Union. He suggested opening EU offices in Tunisia or Egypt, for example, where people from Africa can apply for asylum in Europe.
Asylum quick check required in Africa
At the EU’s external borders, there must be “at least one quick check of who has the prospect of asylum,” Weber added. “And if migrants arrive from third countries like Turkey, where they are safe, then the first procedural steps could also take place there on foreign territory.”
As a third point, Weber mentioned sea rescue, which is also “a sovereign task of the state” in the Mediterranean and should not be left to civilian aid organizations. “We must therefore examine the relaunch of an EU mission in the Mediterranean.”
Since the refugee crisis of 2015, the EU has failed to agree on a new asylum pact. The issue of controversy will next concern the heads of state and government at a special summit in Brussels on February 9th and 10th. (AFP)
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