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Politics
Thursday, July 12, 2018
The ministers of inside the EU show unity in their meeting: they want to better protect the external borders and build a border police. Interior Minister Seehofer sees signals for new refugee agreements, also with Italy. But they are skeptical.
EU Ministers of the Interior and EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos have agreed on a common approach to implement decisions of the EU Summit on Refugee Policies. They want to promote the protection of the external borders of the EU. Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, after consultations with his EU colleagues in Innsbruck, expressed a very broad consensus on this point
The Frontex Border Agency should be strengthened and given the necessary mandate. There is also a broad consensus that there must be action in countries of origin and transit, including border protection. We need a system of incentives and sanctions so that states no longer refuse to take back their own citizens.
There are also many similarities between EU countries in the "landing platforms" provided for housing refugees in North Africa. Platforms should be designed in such a way that they comply with international law and are useful for relations with third countries. In addition, work on a common European asylum system and the Dublin system should be encouraged. However, there is currently a stalemate.
Commissioner Migration Avramopoulos also said that partnerships outside the EU required better cooperation on migration. But inside there must be a system that works. To protect the external border, the EU will soon be proposing to extend the mandate of the Border Guard and the Coast Guard. "We will propose a European border police". Border guards should have 10,000 police officers by 2020.
Seehofer satisfied
Although no concrete decision was made at the meeting in Innsbruck, the Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer spoke of a new "community spirit". He stated that he supported effective and sustainable protection of the EU's external borders and agreements with countries of origin and transit which guaranteed the participation of these countries. It also concerns the repatriation of people who do not have protection status in Europe. The issue of migration was the "question of the fate of Europe".
Seehofer has announced several new agreements with other EU states to speed up the withdrawal of refugees. "I have a lot of encouragement here that other countries want to be there," said the head of the CSU. Currently, there are only 11 states and not 14 more, as Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the European summit in late June.
At the ministerial meeting, he also spoke to Switzerland about a possible agreement. Now, the states in question will be sent "some kind of framework agreement". At the beginning of August, Seehofer aims for such agreements with Austria, Greece and Italy. He has "a bit of optimism that we can work together to solve the internal migration". Italy and Austria were not among the 14 countries whose Merkel had received the commitment to speed up the return of asylum seekers by the end of June
"No , grazie "
Seehofer also came on the sidelines of the EU ministerial meeting for talks with his colleagues from Austria and Italy, Herbert Kickl and Matteo Salvini. Both are considered hard in migration policy. Salvini denies the ships of private aid organizations, which rescue refugees in the Mediterranean, entering Italian ports. In the end, Kickl even demanded that no asylum application be filed within the EU.
Together, Seehofer organized a close alliance with them, talked about friendly relationships and posed with them for the photographers. Their interests are contradictory in central points. Seehofer wants above all that Salvini bring back refugees from Germany. Salvini, who is the leader of the xenophobic Lega, has repeatedly pointed out recently, not to be ready. Before Europe protects its external borders, Italy will not take back a single refugee. How he wanted to convince Salvini to take back the refugees, leaving Seehofer open. If the talks fail and Seehofer alone pushes the refugees back to the Austrian border, the Alpine Republic will be directly affected.
"The polite question of my German colleague Seehofer, who asked me to take back migrants from Germany, is just as polite said: No, thanks!" Salvini said after the meeting. He stressed: "If departures, arrivals and deaths are significantly reduced, there will be no problem at the internal borders of the Union". Also Seehofer said: "All of this has no resounding success, (…) it's failing to create order on the outer border."
Source: n-tv.de
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