Migration crisis a test for European ideas, politicians, future prospects

Sept. 21, 2015 - PRLog -- The leaders of the European Union will discuss the migration crisis during an extraordinary meeting summoned by the European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday, September 23. On September 17, he announced the plans to visit the refugee camps in Egypt and Jordan this week before the meeting.

The idea to hold the special summit was first mentioned by the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico two days before that: shortly afterwards, representatives of Germany and Austria spoke in favor of meeting in the upcoming week.

Earlier, the September 14 meeting of the EU home affairs ministers brought no results as they failed to agree on the obligatory refugee quotas for the whole European Union. As a result, they did follow on the recommendation of the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to resettle an extra 120,000 asylum seekers.

The refugee quotas have split Europe in two opposing camps. While Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Lithuania speak in favor of the new arrangement, representatives of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Denmark, the Czech Republic and several other countries bombarded Juncker’s initiative with criticism, while, the United Kingdom that is teetering on the verge of Brexit announced its individual plans to provide refuge for up to 50,000 people from Syria on their own criteria for review.

At the moment of this writing, thousands of people from Syria, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and other countries continue to arrive to Europe daily, driven by wars and poverty. Based on the reports of Frontex border management agency, over 500,000 refugees have arrived in the European Union in the first half of 2014, in comparison to 280,000 in the whole 2014 – and the analysts say this figure can double in the nearest future, the counter-efforts of Hungary, Austria, Macedonia, Germany and several other states notwithstanding.

According to several foreign researchers, the refugees arriving in Europe through liberally protected borders pose a significant threat to the EU member states, as hundreds of thousands of people can easily mask the incognito Islamic State terrorists, while the IS recruiters are already brainwashing some of the vulnerable displaced persons – a situation that can lead to a “European Jihad” and undermine the existence of the Schengen Area in the future.

In the meanwhile, some experts and politicians urge the public to analyze the sources of the current problem in the past, learn the mistakes in the previously made decisions, and avoid the possible pitfalls that may prove fatal for millions of European citizens, instead of focusing on the task of helping refugees alone.

In particular, Joaquin Flores, director of the Center for Syncretic Studies in Serbia, recalled that the NATO member states have been all but ignoring the possible consequences of the conflicts in Libya, Syria and Iraq, while certain Western states and their allies incited the bloodshed in the Middle East through their interventions.

Full text news agency "PenzaNews":http://penzanews.ru/en/opinion/59517-2015