• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, July 14, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Tusk: EU Compromise on Migrants ‘Very Hard’

Staff Writer with AFP by Staff Writer with AFP
12/15/17
in World
Refugee life jackets

Refugees' life jackets at Parliament Square in London, part of a campaign to remind politicians and the public of the number of refugees and migrants who drown in the Mediterranean. Many of them flee war, terror and persecution. Photo: Howard Lake/Flickr

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

European leaders will find it “very hard” to reach a compromise in talks on a new policy for admitting refugees by a June deadline, E.U. President Donald Tusk said at a summit Friday.

Mr. Tusk and European Commission Chief Jean-Claude Juncker nonetheless tried to defuse a row that had even divided them when they opened talks with the bloc’s 28 leaders on Thursday.

“Mandatory quotas remain a contentious issue although its temperature has decreased substantially,” Mr. Tusk told a press conference ending the last European Union summit of 2017.

“Will a compromise be possible? It appears very hard,” the former Polish premier said.

During two hours of debate Thursday night, the leaders of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia all stood firm against refugee quotas, participants said.

Eastern states have been opposed ever since other E.U. states adopted by majority the quotas in 2015 as a form of solidarity with frontline states Greece and Italy.

Under the plan, asylum seekers are relocated to other members of the bloc in a temporary exception to the so-called Dublin rules, which requires countries where they first land to process them.

My remarks at the press conference following the European Council and the Euro Summit https://t.co/ul0MlKHHpp pic.twitter.com/8qywgtYpPg

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) December 15, 2017

“The discussion was fierce because the differences of opinion are still wide,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said when the dinner talks ended early Friday.

“There’s no solution on how to find a consensus on the quotas,” Mr. Rutte added.

The stubborn divide contrasts with broad agreement among the leaders to contribute to shoring up Europe’s external borders through cooperation deals with third countries like Turkey and Libya.

Backed by the leaders of France and other countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said member states cannot be “selective” when it comes to solidarity.

“Here we still have a lot of work to do. The points of view did not change. But there is a clear task to continue working until June next year,” Ms. Merkel said.

However, Ms. Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the doors to one million asylum seekers infuriated a number of European leaders, particularly Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

It was seen as drawing even more migrants to Europe, which was facing its worst such crisis since World War II, with people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

The E.U. has since stalled on plans for a permanent mechanism for future crises amid the opposition from the eastern countries — three of which are already facing E.U. legal action over their refusal to admit any refugees.

Before the summit started, the four eastern leaders offered a financial contribution of 35 million euros ($30 million) to bolster external borders.

However, Mr. Rutte, backed by many leaders, said member states cannot use the EU as a place to shop for what they want and ignore what they don’t.

“What Orban is doing is shameful,” Mr. Rutte said.

Mr. Orban has led eastern opposition to refugees and migrants, saying the region will not be able to integrate them and it will face a security threat, particularly from Muslims.

But E.U. officials said countries have a “window” to try to bridge the gap over burden sharing with the easing of the migrant crisis.

Italy and Greece have seen sharp declines in arrivals as a result of E.U. financial and other cooperation with Libya and Turkey, but they fear future crises.

The June deadline for asylum reform will also come as the summer weather brings an upsurge in Mediterranean boat crossings.

In the final press conference, Mr. Juncker sought to defuse the row when he said he had known Tusk “for centuries” and he was certainly not anti-European.

Mr. Tusk sparked the row when he appeared to support the eastern countries, saying in a pre-summit letter that a mandatory quota scheme for relocating refugees from frontline states was “ineffective” and “highly divisive.”

Mr. Juncker’s European Commission, the executive arm of the E.U., which first pushed the quota system, shot back that the scheme was effective.

It said 32,000 people relocated under the plan, or 90 percent of those eligible. The scheme was originally meant to relocate 160,000 refugees.

E.U. Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was even harsher, calling Mr. Tusk’s stance “unacceptable” and “anti-European”.

Mr. Juncker said: “Avramopoulos is a good commissioner and this was really a misunderstanding.”

With divisions on asylum reform still high, Mr. Rutte said member states will probably have no choice but to adopt rules by majority rather than by consensus.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer with AFP

Staff Writer with AFP

Related Posts

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.
Opinion

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

by Eleanor Paynter
May 30, 2023
Poland border wall
Refugees

Poland Begins Work on New EU-Belarus Border Wall

by Staff Writer
January 25, 2022
migrants
Refugees

Hundreds of Rescued Migrants Disembark in Italy’s Sicily

by Staff Writer
December 29, 2021
Humanitarian worker places a face mask on a child refugee during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opinion

As COVID-19 Lingers, Wealthy Nations Must Not Abandon Migrants

by Maria DeJesus
December 21, 2021
Pope Francis
Refugees

Pope Francis Plans New Migrant Transfer to Rome on Cyprus Visit

by Staff Writer
November 26, 2021
migrant boat tragedy
Refugees

31 Die in Deadliest Migrant Boat Tragedy Between France, UK

by Staff Writer
November 24, 2021
Next Post
Israeli police disperse Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem's Old City

The Ticking Time Bomb of Jerusalem

Pence Balkan Adriatic Charter Summit

US Plans Middle East Peace Push After 'Cooling Off' Over Jerusalem

Recommended

Ursula von der Leyen

EU Ministers Weigh Response to Latest Trump Tariff Threat

July 14, 2025
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Says US Sanctions on Expert Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Must Be Reversed

July 11, 2025
Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post