• More of Europe turning right on immigration

    From a425couple@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 4 12:00:00 2023
    XPost: soc.history.war.misc, or.politics, seattle.politics
    XPost: ca.politics

    I'm generally pro immigration.
    But I feel the government needs to control it.

    from https://www.politico.eu/article/euco-council-eu-viktor-orban-charles-michel-hungary-poland-migration-mutiny-eu-summit-deadlocks/

    Migration mutiny: EU summit deadlocks
    Hungary and Poland took a stand against a recent migration deal during Thursday’s EU summit, blocking any EU leaders’ statement on the issue.

    BELGIUM-EU-POLITICS-SUMMIT
    European Council Summit, at the EU headquarters in Brussels | Ludovic
    Marin/AFP via Getty Images
    BY JACOPO BARIGAZZI, SUZANNE LYNCH, HANS VON DER BURCHARD, BARBARA
    MOENS, CLEA CAULCUTT AND CORY BENNETT
    JUNE 30, 2023 2:51 AM CET
    6 MINUTES READ

    BRUSSELS — EU leaders were ticking through their agenda items with
    alacrity on Thursday. Rumors were circulating they might even cancel
    Friday’s meeting, having nothing left to talk about.

    Then Viktor Orbán stepped in.

    Our approach to migration is unacceptable, the Hungarian leader
    fulminated. Exactly, echoed the Polish prime minister, Mateusz
    Morawiecki. We won’t move forward with the summit’s final statement
    until our concerns are addressed, they vowed.

    In the end, they got their way — kind of. The entire summit stalled as
    the leaders of France and Germany, plus European Council President
    Charles Michel, negotiated with Hungary and Poland. Eventually, everyone
    just gave up. Shortly after 1 a.m., EU leaders called off the summit and
    went home, vowing to try again Friday morning.

    It was exactly what everyone had been hoping to avoid: Yet another
    migration mutiny.

    The talks had been “difficult” and “complicated,” Belgian Prime Minister
    Alexander De Croo conceded on his way out. “We hope the night brings
    some advice.”

    In many ways, the failure to produce a final statement is merely
    cosmetic. The underlying reason behind Hungary and Poland’s 11th-hour intervention was a protest over a migration deal EU countries pushed
    through this month to relocate migrants across the Continent.

    Statement or not, that deal will remain in place. Yet Hungary and Poland
    wanted to use the summit to express their discontent — and that, they certainly did.

    The late-night obstruction, described to POLITICO by numerous diplomats familiar with the talks, is just the latest indication that migration is becoming an increasingly unavoidable subject at every EU summit. And
    with migrants continuing to arrive via dangerous Mediterranean routes
    and horrific tragedies like the recent migrant boat sinking off the
    Greek coast, the issue is not going away.

    We’re always talking migration now
    In the room, Dutch leader Mark Rutte suggested leaders discuss it again
    at their next summit, while De Croo argued it should simply always be on
    the agenda, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions
    who, like others, spoke anonymously to share details of the private talks.

    Others pointed to the rise in anti-immigrant attacks in their home
    countries — including in places like Ireland which have traditionally
    escaped anti-immigration trends — as well as the rise in popularity of far-right parties, fuelled by xenophobic sentiment.

    Migration has long been one of the thorniest issues for the EU. Since
    the 2015 migration crisis, the bloc has tried and failed to overhaul the bloc’s process for welcoming and relocating asylum seekers.

    Until last month that is. In May, EU countries finally — after months of tense negotiations — reached an agreement that did both.

    The deal, in a nutshell, would install a stricter asylum procedure at
    the border for migrants deemed unlikely to be accepted. It would also
    create a system that gives EU countries the choice of either accepting a certain number of migrants each year or paying into a joint EU fund.

    Hungary and Poland detest the mandatory relocations and have vowed not
    to cooperate.

    And at Thursday’s gathering, they also expressed anger that the deal was pushed through via majority support — not unanimity. They pushed to
    adopt a joint statement committing to making EU migration decisions only
    by consensus (even though the EU doesn’t require that).

    The text of one potential compromise version of the statement, seen by POLITICO, calls for the EU to “find consensus on an effective asylum and migration policy.”

    Despite Hungarian and Polish protestations, the deal is not going away.

    “The migration deal stands,” Rutte said as he left the summit. “What has been the issue today was not the migration pact … but that Hungary and
    Poland don’t like the way the migration pact was decided.”

    And that frustration spilled over into Thursday’s meeting.

    “They’re so angry about this that they say that they want no conclusions [on migration] at all now,” Rutte said.

    Moments after leaders broke up for the night, Orbán’s political
    director, Balázs Orbán, summed up the sentiment on Twitter: “Heavy fight against the pro-migration forces of Brussels!”

    A sign of things to come
    Summit organizers had been hoping to avoid such a prolonged conversation
    on migration, worried that it might turn heated.

    They took several steps in the run-up to try and ensure the joint
    statement’s language placated everyone. To start, the drafts circulating ahead of time only indirectly referenced the migration agreement.

    The drafts also tried to skirt another point of contention: a push from
    several hawkish countries to include a reference to finding “innovative solutions” on migration.

    Though no one wanted to say it publicly, three officials familiar with
    the talks said the vague term included the prospect of sending asylum
    seekers to non-EU countries — a model akin to a controversial U.K. plan
    to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda. By coincidence, the U.K. proposal was dramatically struck down by the U.K. Court of Appeal Thursday just as EU leaders were arriving in Brussels.

    Instead of mentioning the controversial phrase, drafters instead slipped
    in a reference to a letter EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,
    the EU’s top executive, circulated to EU leaders this week, pledging
    that her European Commission was “ready to continue developing new ways
    of advancing on … objectives including through out-of-the-box thinking.”

    The term “out-of-the-box thinking” — essentially a euphemism that keeps the door open for a range of migration options — got positive mentions
    from several leaders during Thursday’s meeting, according to the
    official familiar with the discussions.

    One country that appeared satisfied all day: Italy.

    Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has successfully pulled much of the EU
    in her direction on migration and was the clear victor of the recent
    migration deal.

    “It was a unique approach that fixed everyone’s problems,” she said as she arrived at the summit.

    And De Croo, the Belgian leader, even praised her role as an
    intermediary with Hungary and Poland on Thursday.

    But it remains far from clear if leaders will be able to reach a deal
    after a night’s sleep.

    “There is really, really, really a desire to be able to come to conclusions,” De Croo stressed.

    MORE FROM ... JACOPO BARIGAZZI, SUZANNE LYNCH, HANS VON DER BURCHARD,
    BARBARA MOENS, CLEA CAULCUTT AND CORY BENNETT
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