They had not, the day before, decided in the heart of the respect for the rule of law by Poland or energy prices. European leaders, meeting at a summit in Brussels, made no further progress on the issue of migration on Friday 22 October.
At the end of this meeting, probably the last of its kind for her, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ” worry “ to see Europe always “Vulnerable from the outside” and unable to overcome this challenge. “It is, and remains, harmful that we cannot identify a common line” despite the “Very good proposals” Commission, she had already said Thursday. She thus evoked the “global pact for migration”, presented in autumn 2020, which relies on a balance between solidarity and reinforced controls, the examination of which drags on. France hopes to unblock the situation during its next presidency of the European Union (EU), from 1er January 2022, with, as a corollary, a reform of the rules of the Schengen area.
Applauded, described on Friday as ” a monument “ by the President of the Council, Charles Michel, greeted from a distance by Barack Obama at the end of his final appearance in the Belgian capital, Mme Merkel was unable to move the lines: the Twenty-Seven remain totally divided on migration. Instead of diminishing, their differences even became a little clearer still when ten member countries tried to pass a text aiming for the Commission to finance the construction of walls or barbed wire fences at the external borders of the EU. Union.
“No financing of barbed wire and walls”
Under the guise of a call to “ concrete measures supported by adequate funding ” and to “An immediate and appropriate response”, the three Baltic States, the four members of the Visegrad group (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia), Slovenia, Bulgaria and Greece were trying to relaunch a project which had also obtained the support of Austria and Cyprus October 7. “I was very clear: there is a long-standing common position of the Commission and the European Parliament and there will be no funding of barbed wire and walls”, replied Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Lithuania is currently building a fence along its border with Belarus to stem an influx of Iraqi, Yemeni and Syrian migrants orchestrated by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Poland is doing the same and Hungary had already erected a barrier at its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 2015. Slovenia did the same with Croatia, a member country of the Union but not of the Schengen area.
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