Big EU Immigration Policy Conference Kicks Off

by the EuroNews Staff

The Danish presidency opens conference on common EU politics. Themes of unity in diversity with just a few false notes

Today’s grand opening of the EU conference on common migration policy was full of all the pomp and ceremony that could be expected and with their choice of unity in diversity for the food, the Danes may have laid the ’tap water presidency’ jibes to rest. First impressions do not bode particularly well for reaching a final agreement. The Greeks just want to get rid of the Dublin II Agreement, which settles them with most of the immigrants trying to reach the promised lands in the EU. The Germans worry about costs and funding. The Danes certainly don’t want Dublin II to go. The Brits are worried that they may have to take on more immigrants due to Commission proposals of ’burden sharing’. The French do not seem to keen either. And the Poles are mainly interested in keeping internal borders of the Schengen Area open.

The Commission and the Danish presidency invited everyone to a 'townhall meeting'

However, Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt may expect a less than ecstatic greeting by her own parliamentary colleagues due to an unfortunate statement on today’s press conference. When the Alliance of European Nationalists Movements, represented by Front National’s Bruno Gollnisch (France), and British National Party’s Nick Griffin, asked for the umpteenth time, if a common migration policy wouldn’t lead to more immigration, and how to prevent this, she gave an answer that may antagonize both left and right simultaneously. First she said that, ’there is no such thing as too many immigrants’, providing off course that they are ’the right kind of immigrants’. The first party will certainly rile her political opponents, while the second may anger her political allies.

Today’s press conference did briefly touch on the recent Greco-German spat over enforcement of Schengen rules, when the Germans raised the issue of new instrument to punish non-compliance with the proposed new common migration policy. But compared to the latest vitriolic rhetoric between the two, the tone was almost amicable.

From left to right: La Strada’s Marieke van Doornick, followed by the President of the Migration Policy Instite, Demetrios Papademetriou, and the Commission’s own trafficking expert. Centre stage is Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, flanked by Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and the Commissioners for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, and Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Füle

Apart from the national delegations, the NGOs’ statements were fairly unsurprising. The anti-trafficking group, La Strada, complained that trafficking had received too little attention in the Commission’s proposal. This opinion was actually seconded by the Commission’s own expert on the area, but a remedy will hardly be an intractable issue. Although Amnesty Intenational was not formally represented. They certainly can’t fault the language of the proposal. Continually, the Commission highlights respect for human rights and fair treatment of immigrants (in Eurocratese: ’a migrant-centred approach’).

Since few, if any, of the non-state actors had any chance to read the proposal in advance, the Commission was quickly cast in the role of overbearing school teacher. President of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was quick to explain that wording in the proposal  hinting at a limitation of the current rights of Schengen states to extraordinarily close their borders, should not be understood as a requirement that member states first ‘ask permission’ of some EU agency. How the passage ‘a mechanism should be required to allow for a European level-decision to be made as to when and which Member States would, for a limited period of time, exceptionally reintroduce internal border control’ is then to be understood is not entirely clear. It certainly sounds like asking permission, but we have the word of the Commission Chief himself that that is not so…

Other NGOs were also true to form. The aforementioned Alliance of European Nationalists Movements kept on asking whether the proposal would lead to increased immigration, and how to prevent it, but otherwise kept a kept a fairly low profile. None of the heckling or ’controversial’ statements that one might otherwise expect from these outspoken rightists.

Compatriots, hardly companions: French President, Nicolas Sarkozy (left) with Front Naitonal’s, Bruno Gollnisch. Msr. Gollnisch is attending as President of the Alliance of European Nationalist Movements. Surprisingly, none of them complained of being served Danish wine.

Perhaps more surprising, was the fairly inconspicuous role played by the otherwise flamboyant French President, Nicholas Sarkozy. Often nicknamed ‘the little Napoleon’ or ‘President Bling-Bling’ did not make much of an impression today. Perhaps this is due to the recent tragic events in Toulouse, which were also remarked upon by the Danish presidency, which offered its condolences on behalf of all of the EU.

’Sarkozy without Merkel is nothing and Merkel without Sarkozy is nothing.’ The dynamic duo of current EU politics  who have long ago morphed into the superhuman ’Merkozy’. ’Die Kanzlerin’ is on the right.

As already mentioned, the lunch must have quieted the critics of the Danish ‘tap water presidency’. In addition to the unity in diversity theme, by serving local wines the Danes proved that even the North can produce wines fit, if not for a king, then at least for Prime Ministers and Presidents. Choosing to capitalize on the newfound fame of the so-called ‘new Nordic kitchen’ the Danes must have satisfied more than a few pallets at the grand reception.

Whether the choice to serve local wines should also serve as a reminder of global warming, was not mentioned outright. But if so, it was certainly a very subtle and elegant way of underlining the need for the avowedly ‘green’ Danish presidency.

So, while the Danish presidency did not always seem to play from the same score as the Commission, the Danes cannot be entirely dissatisfied with the inaugural day of the conference. Whether the end result will be to their liking is of course an entirely different matter.

One big, happy family?
Well, at least they're not fighting (openly)