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European Official Calls for Continent to Take In 160,000 Migrants European Official Calls for Continent to Take In 160,000 Migrants
(about 9 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, called on the bloc on Wednesday to accept 160,000 migrants, imploring leaders not to remain indifferent in the face of one of Europe’s toughest humanitarian challenges in decades. BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top executive proposed a plan on Wednesday to distribute 160,000 people throughout the member nations, even while acknowledging that the plan was inadequate to the depth of the crisis.
“Turning a blind eye to poor and helpless people, that is not Europe,” said Mr. Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg. Coming against the backdrop of anti-immigrant sentiment in countries like Hungary, which is building a 110-mile fence on its border with Serbia to try to keep migrants out, Mr. Juncker appealed to Europeans in personal terms. Citing history, morality and economics, the official, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, urged the bloc to put aside deep divisions over welcoming refugees from war-torn and poverty-stricken nations in the Middle East and Africa and forge a stronger and more unified response.
In his first State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg, France, he urged Europeans to remember their ancestors who sought refuge from religious persecution, war and famine, and he warned that Europe had a historical imperative not to look the other way. Facing strong resistance by some members to a quota system to that would compel them to take in a specified number of the new arrivals, Mr. Juncker cast the crisis as the most compelling one facing the bloc since World War II. It was not only a humanitarian issue but also a test of the European Union’s fundamental ability to act in a unified manner and in accordance with its values, rather than following some musty bureaucratic language or practices.
“There is not enough Europe in this union,” he said, referring to how the bloc has reacted so far. “And there is not enough union in this union. We have to change this. And we have to change this now.”
His tone mirrored in many ways that taken in recent days by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who also urged other European nations on Wednesday to agree on plans for dealing with the influx of people and has said her country expects to absorb 800,000 refugees this year alone.
He also proposed unity on such matters as identifying those who are more likely to be granted asylum, and establishing common standards for how they are treated, rather than a patchwork of national policies.
It is by no means certain that the plan he is advocating will be agreed to when officials meet on Monday to consider it. In any case, the program being pushed by Mr. Juncker is small relative to the scale of the challenge, with an estimated half-million people having endured hardship and risk to reach Europe this year alone.
“Do not underestimate the urgency,” Mr. Juncker said. “Do not underestimate our imperative to act. Winter is approaching — think of the families sleeping in parks and railway stations in Budapest, in tents in Traiskirchen, or on shores in Kos. What will become of them on cold, winter nights?”
The speech was delivered as thousands continued a land trek through an overburdened Greece, across the Balkans, and into Hungary, which is building a 110-mile fence on its border with Serbia to try to keep migrants out. From there, the migrants are moving toward Austria, Germany, Sweden and a handful of other prospering European nations in the north.
The migrants coming through the Balkans, many fleeing the chaos in Syria, have created a public and political response that previous waves, mostly Africans coming across the Mediterranean from Libya into Italy, have not.
There were further protests, escapes and acts of violence on Wednesday across the Continent as the authorities struggled to impose order and follow the law, and migrants sought to reach their preferred destinations.
Mr. Juncker said a response that respects humanity and human dignity was a matter of “historical fairness,” and pointed out that Europeans are all too familiar with being refugees themselves.
“Let us be clear and honest with our often-worried citizens,” Mr. Juncker said, pointing to the root causes of the crisis. “As long as there is war in Syria and terror in Libya, the refugee crisis will not simply go away.”“Let us be clear and honest with our often-worried citizens,” Mr. Juncker said, pointing to the root causes of the crisis. “As long as there is war in Syria and terror in Libya, the refugee crisis will not simply go away.”
Many of the migrants are believed to be fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa, and he said the sight of people sleeping in train stations and on beaches was unacceptable and must be addressed as winter approaches. Mr. Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, used his State of the Union address to the European Parliament to make a case that history and self-interest compel the bloc’s members to come together to address the issue, not just by helping the migrants but by more forcefully addressing the root causes of conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
The centerpiece of Mr. Juncker’s speech to the European Parliament was his formal announcement of an emergency plan, which would be binding on a majority of member states, to spread the burden of accommodating 160,000 people, many of whom are flowing into Greece, Hungary and Italy. “Europe has made the mistake in the past of distinguishing between Jews, Christians, Muslims,” he said.
Facing a migration crisis that has stoked angry passions, European leaders in June failed to agree on a vague pledge to spread even 40,000 migrants around the Continent, and it remained unclear whether a quota of 160,000 people, even if accepted, would be sufficient to accommodate a large influx of migrants to Europe. Germany alone has said it expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year. Alluding to the barrier being built by Hungary to stem the flow of migrants, he said: “We can build walls, we can build fences. But imagine for a second it were you, your child in your arms, the world you knew torn apart around you. There is no price you would not pay, there is no wall you would not climb, no sea you would not sail, no border you would not cross if it is war or the barbarism of the Islamic State you are fleeing.”
European governments have been squabbling over how to deal with asylum seekers, and Mr. Juncker’s comments matched a theme expressed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who earlier in the day repeated her call for European leaders to reach a binding agreement on the distribution of them throughout the bloc. He also cast the plan as an antidote to the Continent’s looming labor woes, where an aging demographic threatens economic growth.
“The bell tolls, the time has come,” Mr. Juncker said. “We have to look at the huge issues with which the European Union is now confronted” because it is “not in a good situation.” “We will be needing talent,” he said, and called for immigration to be treated as a “well-managed resource” rather than a problem.
There is “a lack of union in this European Union,” he continued. But a version of the quota plan has been discussed for months, and European Union leaders failed to agree on far more modest quotas at a summit meeting in June. Many governments, like Britain, are contending with support for populist or anti-immigrant groups.
“That has to change,” he added. Indeed, the modesty of the plan — 160,000 people, in the face of hundreds of thousands seeking refuge — is a tacit acknowledgment of the hurdles it faces.
Opposition to the emergency plan arose almost immediately after Mr. Juncker ended his address. “Let’s work out what each country can do to help those fleeing for their lives,” Syed Kamall, the leader of the British Conservative Party in the European Parliament, told other lawmakers.
“But let’s be clear: Telling countries what to do, forcing a plan on them, only risks more finger-pointing,” he said. “It might make some of you feel better, but I fear it could actually make the crisis worse.”
But Mr. Juncker’s plans drew praise from a number of his political opponents, including Ulrike Lunacek, a lawmaker in the Greens bloc of the European Parliament who represents Austria. Mr. Juncker’s calls for “solidarity with refugees” and for European countries “to finally step up to the plate” were “worthy of respect,” Ms. Lunacek said.
She also praised Mr. Juncker for having called for a change to European rules to allow people who have applied for asylum to work and earn money while their applications were being processed.
Mr. Juncker used his speech to denounce the leaders of some European Union member states who have been unwelcoming to migrants, and he said that allowing more of them would help the economy, rather than damage it, by adding young workers to the bloc’s aging work force.
He highlighted efforts of countries like Jordan and Lebanon to accommodate a larger number of migrants than their richer European neighbors.
“We can build walls; we can build fences,” he said, alluding to measures Hungary has taken. “But imagine for a second if it were you, your child in your arms, the world you knew torn apart around you. There is no price you would not pay; there is no wall you would not climb.”
Mr. Juncker asked home affairs ministers of European Union member states to approve his plan to accept the 160,000 at their next meeting, on Monday.
“That’s the number that Europeans have to take in charge, and have to take in their arms,” Mr. Juncker said.
“Action is what is needed for the time being,” he continued.
There is no guarantee that ministers will accept that plan. European Union leaders failed to agree on far more modest quotas at the summit meeting in June, and many governments must contend with the growing support of populist or anti-immigrant groups.
Countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary are likely to continue resisting any binding or permanent quotas.Countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary are likely to continue resisting any binding or permanent quotas.
But the discovery last month of more than 70 dead migrants in a truck abandoned on the side of an Austrian highway and the photograph of a young Syrian boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey have increased the resolve of policy makers like Mr. Juncker to ensure that Europe does a better job of managing the influx. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, who on Monday said his government would accept 20,000 more from Syria, though only those who remain in that region, has balked at surrendering national autonomy on such matters, and has called for a national vote on whether Britain should remain in the European Union at all.
France, which had been hostile to permanent quotas, now supports Germany on the need to share the burden of taking in asylum seekers among all European countries. Others have argued that guaranteeing spots for migrants will only encourage more to make the journey.
The plan would require states to pay a small percentage of their gross domestic product, amounting to 0.002 percent of it, to help finance the efforts of neighboring countries if they cannot participate. Mr. Juncker is hardly the first to deliver such an appeal to European leaders. Last November, Pope Francis addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg and challenged its malaise in addressing its problems. “The time has come for us to abandon the idea of a Europe which is fearful and self-absorbed,” the pope said.
Any such temporary exemption would last 12 months and be decided “case by case,” Frans Timmermans, the first vice president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, told a news conference in Strasbourg after Mr. Juncker’s speech. Underscoring Mr. Juncker’s message was Ms. Merkel of Germany, who on Wednesday repeated her call for European leaders to reach a binding agreement on the distribution of the migrants throughout the bloc.
“This is not about picking and choosing because of people’s ethnicity, their religion or the color of their skin,” said Mr. Timmermans, referring to the payment option.
Only a country “in dire trouble because of a natural catastrophe or another reason and can therefore not take its fair share for a given period of time” would be eligible for the option, said Mr. Timmermans, adding that nations should not be allowed to “buy themselves out of solidarity.”
In his bid to win support from even more member states, Mr. Juncker leveled thinly veiled criticism at Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that Christian traditions in Europe are under threat from newcomers from Muslim countries.
Last week, Mr. Orban said that Hungarians “do not want a large number of Muslim people” in their country, and Mr. Juncker suggested that such an approach was completely unacceptable.
“Europe has made the mistake in the past of distinguishing between Jews, Christians, Muslims,” Mr. Juncker said. “There is no religion, no belief, no philosophy when it comes to refugees.”
To speed up the processing of asylum applications, Mr. Juncker said the European Commission planned to propose a list of countries that are deemed safe, to which migrants originating from those countries would be sent back. He noted that the list should include candidate countries for accession to the European Union, like the western Balkans.
Mr. Juncker said that Europe should learn from its history and appeared to point a moral finger at European nations demonizing asylum seekers from Muslim countries.
He also mentioned the large number of people from Ireland, Poland and Scotland who had emigrated to the United States, suggesting that immigration was a source of cultural richness rather than an impediment.
Addressing the root causes of the migration crisis, he also proposed that the European Union create an emergency fund of 1.8 billion euros, or more than $2 billion, to help African countries.
In Germany, Ms. Merkel has repeatedly emphasized the importance of equitable contributions from all members of the European Union in addressing the migration crisis.
“The current refugee crisis cannot be handled solely at the national level,” Ms. Merkel said in a speech to Parliament on Wednesday. “It is a challenge for the European Union, for every member of the European Union.”
Ms. Merkel said that European Union member states needed to agree on a way to distribute the arrivals equitably across the bloc.
Over the past week, Ms. Merkel’s government has taken measures to help the thousands of people pouring into Germany. A package valued at €6 billion was announced on Monday, and legislative changes affecting how asylum seekers’s applications are processed and how to get them into the work force more quickly are expected to come to a vote in Parliament within a month.
“We need to change,” she said, “and it won’t help anyone to point fingers and exchange blame over who didn’t do what, but we all need to go at this so that we can help the people arriving in our country.”“We need to change,” she said, “and it won’t help anyone to point fingers and exchange blame over who didn’t do what, but we all need to go at this so that we can help the people arriving in our country.”
France, which had been skeptical about quotas, now supports Germany on the need to share the burden of taking in asylum seekers among all European countries.
Other nations outside the European Union, including Australia, have offered to take more of the Syrian refugees, and on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States was also open to admitting more than the 1,800 it has taken in since the Syrian war began five years ago.
Opposition to the emergency plan arose almost immediately after Mr. Juncker ended his address. “Let’s work out what each country can do to help those fleeing for their lives,” Syed Kamall, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party in the European Parliament, told other lawmakers. “But let’s be clear: Telling countries what to do, forcing a plan on them, only risks more finger-pointing.”
The plans drew praise, as well, including from a number of his political opponents, like Ulrike Lunacek, a lawmaker in the Greens bloc of the European Parliament from Austria. Mr. Juncker’s calls for “solidarity with refugees” and for European countries “to finally step up to the plate” were “worthy of respect,” Ms. Lunacek said.
She also praised Mr. Juncker for having recommended that people who have applied for asylum be allowed to work and earn money while their applications were being processed.
The plan for relocating 160,000 people in Europe comes in addition to earlier plans to relocate 40,000 people who have reached Italy and Greece.
The European Union countries obliged to take people would receive them based on the size of their populations, their wealth, their unemployment rates and the numbers of asylum seekers who have already applied.
In practice, Germany, France and Spain would take the most people. Germany has said it is prepared this year to handle five times as many asylum seekers as the European total, independent of the quota system.
Italy, Greece and Hungary would receive 500 euros, about $560, for each person relocated to cover transport costs, while states receiving the relocated migrants would get €6,000 for each person.
The plan would require states to pay a small percentage of their gross domestic product, amounting to 0.002 percent of it, to help finance the efforts of neighboring countries if they cannot participate.