The State of Play—The Nations Speak Out

by Agnieszka Sobień

Yesterday, all the heads of state or government met for the tour de table. Here, each country had a chance to express their own opinion on Commission's proposal and give a statement on migration policy.

France stated that they had the longest history of immigration policy and that their idea of "makig Frenchman from the foreigner" was a failure. Because of the huge number of immigrants they believe the proposal is too soft and unrealistic. The French fear immigrants will always end up in "our" countries (i.e. the old western EU member states). Therefore, they believe that companies should provide contracts to their workers to travel but not to stay in other EU countries. On financial matter, however, France does believe in burden-sharing. 

Germany did not want to accept the proposal as it is right now either. They believed that burden sharing must be mandatory in order to assist countries in need. Germany argued that they tried to help Malta and Greece and they ask where other countries were at that time. Even though they think it’s necessary they don't want to feel obliged to help others as the proposal now requires.

Greece does not benefit from the status quo on migration policy and is therefore willing to discuss this issue in more detail. However, Greece feels abandoned and disappointed in supporting this proposal. They believe that burden-sharing is the only possible option in that policy. At the same time they believe that an agreement with Turkey might help to solve the problem with illegal migration. However, the Greeks also warned the EU that they already have such an agreement and that it doesn’t work in reality. Greece also stated that the EU should give Turkey a carrot, as in advanced negotiations, in order to achieve any kind of solution in that matter.

Italy was another of the countries most affected by the flow of immigrants. They argue to "restore Europe with four legs."  They want to strengthen borders and have more tight cooperation with Northern African countries. Italy is afraid that if help is voluntary other member states would not help those in need.

During the entire meeting, Poland has underlined the importance of solidarity and burden-sharing. They want to work on long-term solutions rather than only on emergency quick fixes. Poland also underlined that the EU has more borders than the Mediterranean, meaning that the eastern border should be also taken into consideration during the negotiations.

The UK stressed the responsibility of each member state separately to handle migration problem. They hoped that the resettlement issue might be alleviated by help for now, but emphasized that long term solutions will be still needed. The UK voiced its respect for human rights and supported judicial cooperation in order to prevent trafficking.

Denmark would like to find long term solutions and not only focus on the Arab Spring. Like the UK, they also focused on the issue of trafficking and opined that it should be mentioned in the final proposal. Denmark believed that a “unified interpretation of the Geneva Conventions” would solve the problem of “asylum shopping” (trying several countries to get the highest chance of approval).