Western press: Europe is overflowing with refugees
Instead of developing a common migration policy and coordinating actions on this issue, the EU countries are trying to shift the entire burden on the "neighbor", writes Politico.
Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian events, the problems of migrants have faded into the background, but they need to be addressed. Many refugees from Syria continue to remain in the EU countries, and last year millions of migrants from Ukraine were added.
It would seem that it is worth solving this common problem together, but the EU countries will not come to a compromise in solving the problem of migrants, and all attempts to develop a common policy fail, Politico notes.
Europe is full of refugees
The publication writes that European leaders are more busy solving their own problems and gaining advantages for their countries. This week, a summit of EU leaders is to be held, at which, among other things, migration issues will be discussed. However, most likely, they will not come to a common denominator again, the authors of the publication believe.
Politico assumes that the European Union will be divided on this issue along the lines of north-south and west-east. Thus, the head of the government of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, is already trying to pursue a policy to prevent migrants from entering his country and locking them up in southern Europe. And this policy is based on Rutte's desire to get votes in the March provincial elections. He, like many other European politicians, wants migrants to go through all the procedures in the countries of destination, and only then, perhaps, they will be accepted by the rest of the EU countries. Naturally, the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe do not like this approach, as this will lead to a large accumulation of migrants in these countries while all these procedures are going through.
Greece and Italy, which account for the main influx of migrants, have long demanded from the EU more solidarity and more equitable burden sharing, Politico notes.
The issue has already sparked tensions between Rome and Paris, with Italian authorities closing the country's ports to ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean and demanding France take in the migrants. And Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer recently called for the construction of a fence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border in order to somehow reduce the influx of migrants. However, the EU authorities did not support him, believing that this was contrary to European values.
Thus, in the EU countries there is confusion in the migration issue, but at the same time they accepted millions of Ukrainian refugees quite unitedly last year, the newspaper writes. Probably, when it comes to Ukraine, it is not customary in the EU to argue.
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