{"id":10850,"date":"2018-06-27T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T08:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/?p=10850"},"modified":"2018-07-25T11:15:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T10:15:42","slug":"germany-and-italy-at-odds-on-migration-crisis-after-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/germany-and-italy-at-odds-on-migration-crisis-after-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany and Italy at Odds on Migration Crisis After Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>June 24, 2018<\/p>\n<p>By Steven Erlanger, The New York Times<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-1h6whtw\">\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">BRUSSELS \u2014 Sixteen European leaders vented their frustrations with failed migration policies on Sunday, with the German and Italian prime ministers trying to move the European Union toward their competing positions before a summit meeting later this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">Three years after a large influx of migrants and asylum seekers, the\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/22\/world\/europe\/migration-europe-merkel-seehofer-germany.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vexed issue of migration<\/a>\u00a0has become a popular populist issue and threatens to topple the long reign of Europe\u2019s most prominent leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">In what was billed as a rare \u201cinformal meeting\u201d of leaders under the auspices of the European Commission, the new Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, representing his new anti-immigration populist government, presented a plan that would upend the current regulations governing migrants and asylum seekers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">The Italians want to abandon the principle that migrants must be returned for screening to the E.U. country where they first are registered. Instead, Mr. Conte proposed creating \u201cinternational protection centers\u201d that would screen asylum requests in common countries of transit but that would not obligate the countries of first arrival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-14jsv4e\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-1h6whtw\">\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">The Italians, Greeks and Spaniards have recently borne the brunt of migrants coming from the Middle East and Africa, even after migrant boat travel to Greece from Turkey has been curtailed through a special deal promoted by the Germans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">But while the number of migrants reaching Europe is far lower than in 2015 and 2016, at the height of the Syrian civil war, the politics of migration have become ever more poisonous, with right-wing and populist governments in Italy, Austria and Central Europe all pressing for better controls, along with surging populist parties like the Alternative for Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Merkel, whose government is under threat from her putative conservative allies in Bavaria, had pushed for the informal meeting to try to forestall her own interior minister and rival from ordering that all migrants registered elsewhere be turned away from Germany. That would mean a hard border with Austria and could represent a fatal blow to the idea of \u201cborder-free travel\u201d within most of the bloc.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2018\/06\/25\/world\/25eu-migrants2\/merlin_140184846_7ecc3774-1b0d-48eb-89cf-2f52c764b259-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"css-1v07nl7 e1olku6u0\">Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany speaking with the media at the conclusion of an informal summit on migration at European Union headquarters in Brussels on Sunday.<\/span><span class=\"css-vg01wm e18m0s9i0\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1afaoz0\">Credit<\/span>Geert Vanden Wijngaert\/Associated Press<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-1h6whtw\">\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">Ms. Merkel came here looking for European solutions, even bilateral or temporary ones, to tamp down the\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/15\/world\/europe\/germany-merkel-migrants-bavaria-seehofer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">challenge to her leadership<\/a>\u00a0and to the principle of border-free travel. If she does not find a kind of solution at the European Union summit meeting this Thursday and Friday, her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, has vowed to defy her. (His party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union, faces a strong challenge from the Alternative for Germany in state elections in October.) Some think that could bring down her government and end her 12 years in power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-14jsv4e\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-1h6whtw\">\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">After hours of discussion here on Sunday, Ms. Merkel emerged speaking of increased \u201cgood will\u201d and a good discussion, which would have been impossible given the time constraints of a normal summit meeting. She said that all agreed that countries of \u201cfirst asylum\u201d should not bear undue burdens, that \u201call countries should share all the burdens\u201d of migration and that migrants should not be able to decide for themselves where to apply for asylum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">\u201cWe all agree that we want to reduce illegal migration, that we want to protect our borders and that we are all responsible for all topics,\u201d Ms. Merkel said. \u201cIt cannot be the case that some only deal with primary migration and others only with secondary migration. Everybody is responsible for everything. Wherever possible we want European solutions. Where this is not possible we want bring those who are willing together and find a common framework for action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">The Italian government in particular has begun to turn away ships containing migrants rescued at sea, forcing them to try to find other countries to land their human cargo. It is currently in a spat with Malta, which is refusing to accept\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/24\/world\/europe\/migrant-ship-mediterranean-lifeline.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a German ship with 234 rescued migrants<\/a>already turned away from Italy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">Spain\u2019s new prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, urged other states to help Spain deal with the arrival of thousands of migrants from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea. Spain has seen a sharp rise in migrant arrivals. The United Nations says that around 40,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, some 16,000 in Italy, 12,000 in Greece and 12,000 in Spain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">\u201cIt was a frank discussion in which we saw the things that unite us but also some discrepancies,\u201d Mr. S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cIt was a good step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">He said that there was an important consensus \u201con the need to have a European vision, a common response to a European challenge, which is how to manage the migration flow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">President Emmanuel Macron of France cautioned that Europe must live up to its values, and he has suggested, like Ms. Merkel, solutions by willing countries to make progress now since unanimity among the 28 member states will be difficult. He has also said that he favors punishing member states that do not show solidarity on the migrant issue. With his own position safe, Mr. Macron said that with migration numbers down, \u201ctoday\u2019s challenge is one of political pressure in certain member states and what we call secondary migration within the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0\">Europe would beef up its own border force, he said, and strengthen efforts to work with countries like Libya and Balkan states, through which many migrants travel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 24, 2018 By Steven Erlanger, The New York Times BRUSSELS \u2014 Sixteen European leaders vented their frustrations with failed migration policies on Sunday, with the German and Italian prime<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpolicyconference.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}