Brussels, 17/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 September, following a meeting of home affairs ministers, which achieved mixed results (see EUROPE 11388), and the chaos provoked after a week of successive decisions made by certain member states to reintroduce border controls, President of the European Council Donald Tusk finally decided to arrange a special meeting of heads of state and government of the EU for Wednesday evening 23 September, in an effort to find a solution to a crisis that is continuing to escalate.
This special summit was initially requested by a number of countries in the east of the EU, such as Slovakia and Hungary, which want to reject the proposed quotas by the European Commission. Other member states also requested it but for different reasons, such as Germany and Austria, which provided notification on Sunday 13 September and Tuesday 15 September of their respective temporary introduction of border controls as they attempt to tackle the floods of migrants arriving on their territory.
On Thursday afternoon, Tusk was preparing the agenda of this European summit. It will take place the day after another special home affairs ministers' meeting - the objective of which is to successfully adopt the decision on the resettlement of 120,000 new asylum seekers. Tusk's spokespersons indicated that heads of state and government could therefore be encouraged to focus on “the other immediate measures”, particularly the urgent situation “in our neighbourhood” in an effort to “get the situation under control again”.
Scenes of major chaos have occurred at the border between Hungary and Serbia. On Wednesday 16 September, the Hungarian police used tear gas against refugees, including women and children. There are now doubts about Hungary's respect of the non-refoulement principle of people seeking international protection since it erected a barbed wire fence. Croatia has received almost 60,000 migrants over the past 24 hours, who sought an alternative route to the one through Hungary, which has now closed. On Thursday 16 September, the Commission explained that it had discussed the situation with Hungary on Wednesday during a meeting of the college of commissioners and had called on Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, visiting Budapest on Thursday morning, to discuss the subject with Hungarian leaders. The commissioner pointed out on his visit that the majority of migrants were Syrians fleeing war and that violence “was not a solution”.
The Commission believes that this special summit should focus on key questions and not on the legislative proposal to resettle 120,000 asylum seekers because this should really remain within the remit of the Council of Ministers in charge of home affairs. If an agreement is found at the ministers' meeting on Tuesday 22 September, then the meeting of heads of state and government should be the occasion to address other major issues, such as the situation in Syria, Frontex resources, and the way Schengen is functioning, some EU sources hope. (Solenn Paulic)