E.U. Reaches Deal on Migration at Summit, but Details Sketchy

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/world/europe/germany-angela-merkel-migration-eu.html

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BRUSSELS — European Union leaders, after marathon talks overnight, announced early Friday that they had reached a compromise deal on migration, an issue that has created a political crisis and threatens to undermine the bloc.

As Italy’s new populist government threatened to block progress on other, uncontroversial issues until the migration text was addressed to its satisfaction, European leaders thrashed out the topic for nine hours before finally reaching an agreement around 5 a.m.

While details were sketchy, the leaders agreed in principle, at least, on how to shore up their external borders and create screening centers for migrants, to decide more quickly whether or not they are legitimate refugees.

“We still have a lot of work to do to bridge the different views,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said after the discussions, which a senior European official described as sometimes virulent.

The leaders agreed to establish voluntary screening centers on European soil, to ease the burden on countries like Italy, Spain and Greece where migrants first arrive and are registered. They also agreed to study setting up similar centers outside Europe, in North Africa, for example, to screen migrants before they arrive.

Ms. Merkel had even more at stake than the Italians, under pressure from within her own government to solve the problem of migrants coming into Germany after having registered in other countries. The Italian concern has been to stop migrants from coming to Europe in the first place.

Inside Europe, the proposed centers would house migrants until they are screened, with the idea of deciding their fate more efficiently and sending back those who do not qualify as refugees. But no country has so far volunteered to host such a center.

Outside Europe, centers would be designed to reduce the number of migrants who risk the sea voyage to the Continent and to disrupt the black economy of people-smuggling. Those rescued at sea could be returned to those centers for screening, not brought to Europe. But again, it was not clear which African countries might agree to house such platforms, or whether they would be compatible with international law.

Addressing the concerns in Germany about registered migrants moving within Europe to try to settle there, the European leaders simply promised to “take all necessary internal legislative and administrative measures to counter such movements.” The intent is to prevent the setting up of internal borders within the Schengen free-travel area, which could destroy the principle of borderless movement of people and goods.

Whether that would be enough to satisfy Ms. Merkel’s critics at home remained to be seen.

France was instrumental in trying to broker the agreement with Italy, which said it would block all agreements reached at this summit meeting until its concerns about migration were addressed. Early Friday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that “today Italy is no longer alone. We are satisfied.”

One potential hurdle for the deal is the fact that the European Union has no uniform rules or procedures for asylum, making it unclear what rules would be applied in a screening center, whether inside or outside Europe. But setting up any such center would be a significant change from the current system, under which migrants must be screened in the European country where they first arrive and are registered.

Before arriving in Brussels, Ms. Merkel warned that the issue of migration could make or break the European Union, delivering a passionate address to her Parliament.

“Europe faces many challenges,” said Ms. Merkel. “But that of migration could become one that determines the fate of the European Union.”

The summit meeting was originally supposed to focus on changes to solidify the euro and on Britain’s exit from the bloc. It swerved instead to migration, which has become politically fraught with the rise of populist, anti-immigrant parties — even as the number of migrants coming to Europe has fallen sharply.

The new Italian government played hardball on Thursday, with Mr. Conte refusing to agree to joint conclusions on issues like digital innovation or defense cooperation until migration was dealt with.

Italy has insisted on changing the regulations that govern migration into the European Union, saying that as a country of first landing, it has had enough. Italy has started to turn away ships that rescue migrants from the sea.

At the same time, Ms. Merkel faces an internal rebellion by Bavarian conservatives over immigration that threatens to bring down her government. Her Bavarian interior minister has warned that he will disobey her and establish a hard border with Austria unless she strikes a deal with European leaders to stem the flow of migrants into Germany.

That standoff reflects the fraught politics of migration, with Bavarian conservatives facing a strong challenge from the far-right, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany in state elections in October.

So Ms. Merkel came to Brussels to reach the kind of accord on limiting migration that has slipped the grasp of European Union leaders for years.

If she failed to reach an agreement that would allow her to turn back certain groups of migrants at the German border, the Bavarians could quit her government, a move that would most likely put her out of a job after almost 13 years as German leader and usher in months of uncertainty in the European Union’s most influential country.

In front of a rowdy Parliament on Thursday, she essentially conflated her own fate with that of the union. Either Europe masters this challenge of migration, she said, and proves to other countries that “we are guided by values and that we rely on multilateralism, and not unilateralism,” or “no one will believe any more in our value system that made us so strong.”

The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said before the summit meeting that the leaders should “focus on the E.U.’s external borders,” including screening centers, since the flow of migrants had slowed. Since 2015, Mr. Tusk said, “we have managed to stem the migration flow by 96 percent only because we decided to cooperate with third countries and to block illegal migration outside the E.U.”

The alternative, he said, “would be a chaotically advancing closure of borders — also within the E.U. — as well as growing conflict among E.U. member states.”

But given the tough stance on migration being taken by countries like Italy, Austria and Hungary, Mr. Tusk suggested, Europe needed to act. “Some may think I am too tough in my proposals on migration, but trust me,” he said. “If we don’t agree on them then you will see some really tough proposals from some really tough guys.”

Ms. Merkel agreed, rejecting the idea of unilaterally turning back migrants at the border. Such a move would have ripple effects far beyond Germany, she warned, endangering the European project of border-free travel.

Ms. Merkel’s pro-European stance and her decision to open Germany’s borders to more than 1.4 million migrants since 2015 have earned her a reputation as a defender of liberal values, while also making her the main target of far-right and populist forces across the Continent.

Her address in Parliament on Thursday was unusually combative, and it was frequently interrupted by heckling from representatives of Alternative for Germany. The noise level was so high at one point that Ms. Merkel stopped and said: “My God. Really?”

In Brussels, the Hungarian prime minister, Victor Orban, was characteristically harsh.

“I think the people really request two things: First is, no more migrants in,” he said. The second, he said, would be the deportation of those who are already in Europe but do not qualify as refugees.

“So that’s what the people want,” Mr. Orban said. “So I think in order to restore the European democracy, we have to move to that direction.”

But there were words of support for Ms. Merkel from other leaders, including those of Spain and Luxembourg, whose prime minister, Xavier Bettel, said: “If we have countries saying this and that is a red line, we will never get an agreement. Legal immigration has to be the rule.”

“There are so many people who arrived in different countries and then made their way to Germany,” Mr. Bettel continued. “I understand Germany says, ‘Why do we have to deal with everything?’”

Charles Michel, the prime minister of Belgium, said that the discussion was a “very important moment” for Europe.

“Do we or do we not want to protect the Schengen zone by finding solutions together in a European context to manage the refugees and migrants?” he asked, referring to the system that allows passport-free travel through much of Europe.