Brussels, 26/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said on French TV channel France 3 on Thursday 25 February that the current migration situation demonstrated the “bankruptcy of Europe and of the world”, neither being able to find a way to end the war in Syria. “The war has to be stopped” and “legal ways found for people to come to Europe”, Timmermans said after, earlier in the day, EU home affairs ministers had failed to agree on implementing a common response (see EUROPE 11499).
With some member states reinstating internal border controls (Belgium being the latest, restoring border controls with France), Timmermans argued that this was not necessarily “the end of Schengen but we'll have to be careful”, warning that, sooner or later, the people of Europe will stop believing in “a European solution and the member states will begin looking for national solutions that won't work”.
In the view of the Commission vice-president, there is, nonetheless, a risk that Europe might split asunder. “Europe could fall apart”, he said. Ending Schengen would have “an enormous impact on the internal market and the economy”. “We really have to come up with joint solutions” and put an end to “this race to the bottom” on opening up to and taking in migrants and “harmonise asylum policies, otherwise we'll have this race to the bottom”, with member states looking today to be “as tough as possible”, he argued.
Timmermans was due to meet French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Home Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday 26 February to discuss the migration crisis and the potential humanitarian crisis hanging over Greece.
On Friday, the European Commission said that it was currently doing all in its power to avoid a humanitarian crisis developing in Greece, where thousands of migrants remain blocked and migration flows continue to be high (the IMO spoke on Friday of over 120,000 arrivals since the start of the year). The Commission is currently preparing a humanitarian aid instrument for Greece. This will, however, take some time as it has to be passed by the European Parliament, too, the Commission said.
Donald Tusk in the Balkans. European Council President Donald Tusk announced on 26 February that he will visit the Western Balkans between 1 and 3 March to assess the situation. He will travel to Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Skopje and Athens to prepare, inter alia, for the summit with Turkey on 7 March and also the European Council meeting of 17-18 March. Tusk will also meet the secretary general of NATO and the director of Frontex in Brussels on 4 March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)