euinside

Cause and Effect in European Politics and Law
EU Is Suffering of Severe Migrantaine

EU Is Suffering of Severe Migrantaine

News about drowned or rescued migrants/refugees in the Mediterranean have become something usual, a daily matter. The migrant pressures on only several EU member states has put the issue on the EU agenda. At this stage it generally causes migraine in the EU (migraine of migrants = migrantaine). In this subject we follow what commitments the EU makes and how does it implement them.
 | © Council of the EU | © Council of the EU

Migration Enters the New EU Strategy on Afghanistan

The European Commission proposed on Monday (July 24th) a upgrading of the elements of the European Union's strategy towards Afghanistan, adding a new one - migration. In the current strategy, adopted in 2014, the core elements were four: promoting peace, security and regional stab ...
Davutoglu, Tusk, Juncker | © Council of the EUDavutoglu, Tusk, Juncker | © Council of the EU

Doctor Europe and Mister Turkey

On March 18th, at yet another EU summit, the leaders of member states and Turkey shook hands on a deal, which will not save Europe from the refugees and will not mend the disintegration cracks, neither will it guarantee the restart of the eurointegration process in Turkey. At first glance, it ...
 | © Vlada RS | © Vlada RS

Deal with Turkey, Five Principles of Policy towards Russia, New Tension between Serbs and Croats

Last week was a stormy week in the EU. Leaders of member states have surprisingly easy approved the deal with Turkey, according to which it looks like the EU is not fully selling its soul. Although the main principles of the framework, agreed on a week earlier remain, th ...
Ahmet Davutoglu, Boyko Borissov | © Council of the EUAhmet Davutoglu, Boyko Borissov | © Council of the EU

Did the EU Sell Its Soul to Turkey?

Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. This is an old method of doing things that was administered to the Turkey negotiations last Monday (March 7). What the leaders of the 28 member states and Turkey agreed on is just a framework, which is yet to be filled with details in order ...
Donald Tusk, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | © Council of the EUDonald Tusk, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | © Council of the EU

Is the End of Transiting Migrants Near?

Last week, which passed under the sign of preparation for the next in line emergency EU summit, dedicated to the refugee crisis, offered another dose of paradoxes. European Council President Donald Tusk (Poland, EPP), a spokesman for the Eastern European hardliner position regarding the ref ...
Dimitris Avramopoulos | © European CommissionDimitris Avramopoulos | © European Commission

The Commission Very Much Wants Normality Back by the End of the Year

On the eve of the next in line emergency summit (March 7), dedicated to the refugee crisis, the European Commission presented a roadmap for the restoration of Schengen. Despite the many “if”-s in the roadmap, the EC expects by the end of December 2016 to have norm ...
David Cameron, Alexis Tsipras | © Council of the EUDavid Cameron, Alexis Tsipras | © Council of the EU

British Question Remains Overshadowed by the Refugee Crisis

You can judge the Council by the Arrivals. This is what the period is called before every meeting of the ministers or the leaders of the EU when they stop in front of journalists at the entrance of the Consilium to clarify what they are going to fight for during the meeting. To most journalists, ...
Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk | © European ParliamentJean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk | © European Parliament

Two Months to Europe's Suicide

Up until a year ago it was taboo to even think it was possible that a country should leave the euro area, while in the last week alone so much was said about a possible death of the European Union that there is even an exact date set. The Union has two more months to live. The final countdown wa ...
 | © European Commission | © European Commission

EU Is Temporarily Closed Until Solidarity Returns

Passing the hot refugee potato had to finish at some point. Destination countries finally said basta and lowered the barriers after sending a clear message to transit countries – while there is no solidarity, there is no freedom of movement. In other words without solidarity there is no EU ...
 | © European Commission | © European Commission

The Fifth Element in the Autumn Economic Forecast

For years now demographics has been an important topic in the EU, provoked by an ageing population, but also by the migratory flows, internal for the EU until recently and from the outside in currently. The topic, however, remained at the level of national debate and measures. At the Europe ...
Jean-Claude Juncker | © European ParliamentJean-Claude Juncker | © European Parliament

Member States Request Loosening of Budget Discipline Because of Refugees

All member states, practically with no exclusions, have mentioned the refugee problem as a large budget expense. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg, EPP) said so to MEPs this week, stating before that he was surprised by this. In September, ministers of finance of the ...
Pablo Iglesias | © European ParliamentPablo Iglesias | © European Parliament

Inaction and Euroscepticism Are Killing the European Project

We could add in scorning our values any time we feel heat. Those are the conclusions of the Tuesday morning debate in the European Parliament, during which the bosses of the European Commission and the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, gave an account of the O ...
Angela Merkel, Juncker, Antonio Guterres | © European CommissionAngela Merkel, Juncker, Antonio Guterres | © European Commission

Refugees Will Teach Balkan States to Talk to Each Other

The next in a series of meetings dedicated to the refugee crisis started with an expectation of failure, but ended in success, if the agreement on the text of a declaration could be qualified as success. In the middle of last week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Ju ...
Boyko Borissov | © Council of EUBoyko Borissov | © Council of EU

EU Is Getting Better at Doing Nothing on the Migrant Crisis

The October summit, fourth in a row dedicated to the migrant-refugee crisis, could as well not have happened at all. The only thing it could have been remembered for is that the Bulgarian Prime Minister left it shortly before its ending because of an accident at the Bulgarian-Turkish border ...
 | © Council of the EU | © Council of the EU

Dublin is Dead, Long Live Dublin!

You will probably not be surprised that today starts the fourth in a row summit dedicated to the migrant-refugee problem. It is only just now, however, that someone shouted “The king is naked!”. The subject is accompanied by a lot of tension, discussions, arguments, wall-bu ...
Jyrki Katainen, Kristalina Georgieva | © European CommissionJyrki Katainen, Kristalina Georgieva | © European Commission

European Budget Cuts Boomerang Back

Do you remember the battle for the 7-year European budget for the 2014-2020 period? How British Prime Minister David Cameron was proud of the fact that he won the fight for the first real lowering of the European budget, despite the EU had expanded with one more member? He even went as ...
Ranko Ostojic | © Council of the EURanko Ostojic | © Council of the EU

The EU Agreed on a Drop in the Ocean

The decision of EU Ministers of Interior from last week for the relocation of 120 000 refugees from Italy and Greece got a very dramatic reception. There were talks of a momentous decision to mark the beginning of the end of the EU for the Council of Ministers dared to use the fully legal ...
Angela Merkel | © Council of the EUAngela Merkel | © Council of the EU

Not a G-spot, Not a Hotspot, but Migration Management Support Teams

Take it easy, no one understood exactly what a hotspot is. It is not only Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. This was admitted by EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos himself on Wednesday noon. At a press conference after the end of the European ...
Miro Cerar, Zoran Milanovic | © Council of the EUMiro Cerar, Zoran Milanovic | © Council of the EU

Is There Risk to Bilateral Relations in South-East Europe?

When the refugee crisis subsides and if the EU has survived and managed to reach a decision for common action, the subject will come up in the agenda of how bad the wounds are that states of South-East Europe are dealing to each other at the moment in the attempt to save their skin &ld ...
 | © Council of EU | © Council of EU

The EU Is Disintegrating Before Our Very Eyes

The day before it was Malta, yesterday were Italy and Greece, and today are Hungary, Croatia, Austria, and Germany. One by one member states are becoming panic-stricken and terrified about how are they going to deal with the tens of thousands of refugees that are trying to get to the EU and fi ...
Avramopoulos, Timmermans, Asselborn | © Council of the EUAvramopoulos, Timmermans, Asselborn | © Council of the EU

The Great Wall of Hungary

The Great Wall of China was built in the 7th century BC to protect the empire from the nomadic tribes’ raids. It is one of the seven wonders of the world. Soon the European Union will have its first Great Wall of Hungary which will quite possibly go down in history as the reason for the di ...
Margot Wallstrom, Meglena Kuneva | © Council of the EUMargot Wallstrom, Meglena Kuneva | © Council of the EU

Bulgaria: The Permanent Relocation Mechanism Is Not Sustainable

Ministers of Home Affairs and Justice are gathering today for an emergency meeting at which they need to agree on the revised proposal of the European Commission on the resettlement of 160 thousand refugees from Italy, Greece, and Hungary. Apart from the temporary solution, the E ...
Nigel Farage | © European ParliamentNigel Farage | © European Parliament

Central European MEPs Massively Against Refugees Resolution

Voting in the European Parliament of a non-binding resolution on refugees went by nationality. Party unity was destroyed by national differences in attitude towards the migrant-refugee crisis and the method of dealing with it. As expected, most MEPs from Central Europea ...
 | © European Commission | © European Commission

European Media with a Joint Appeal to Leaders to Solve Refugee Problem

Several large European newspapers united in a joint appeal to European leaders asking them to urgently start looking for a solution to the refugee crisis. Spanish El País, German Die Zeit, Italian la Repubblica, French Libération, British The Independent, Greek I Kathimer ...
Jean-Claude Juncker | © European ParliamentJean-Claude Juncker | © European Parliament

A Shift of Tone in the Migration Debate in the European Parliament

Compared to the first debate on the migration and refugees issue last spring, named historic by many in Strasbourg, Wednesday's discussion in the European Parliament sounded different. At the end of April, MEPs split by partisan lines on EC President Jean-Claude Juncker’s id ...
Bachvarova, Mitov, Kuneva, Kalfin | © Government Information ServiceBachvarova, Mitov, Kuneva, Kalfin | © Government Information Service

Bulgaria Is Ready To Accept Additional Refugees

24 hours prior to the long anticipated first address of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to the Members of the European Parliament on the state of the Union, the debate on the new Commission proposals for dealing with the migrant-refugee crisis, and four day ...
Jean-Claude Juncker | © European CommissionJean-Claude Juncker | © European Commission

Refugee Crisis Reveals Total Lack of EU

One of the most common explanations you could hear this summer from the European Commission regarding the refugee crisis and individual measures, taken up by member states to cope with it, was that guarding the external borders is member countries’ responsibility. In other words, they can ...
Donald Tusk, Viktor Orban | © Council of the EUDonald Tusk, Viktor Orban | © Council of the EU

Totalitarian Legacy in the Refugee Crisis

President of the European Council Donald Tusk – Polish activist from the pro-democratic movement “Solidarity” – noted recently that division in Europe in attitude towards the refugees is along the East-West axis. This geographic division is only at the surface. A deeper l ...
 | © European Commission | © European Commission

Is This the Europe We Wanted?

The romance of a unified Europe is long gone, but today more than ever you can feel its absence in a painful, even scary way. More and more frequently you see headlines like “Did Europe die?”, “Has the end of Europe come?”, and other similar ones that don’t even end ...
Frans Timmermans | © European ParliamentFrans Timmermans | © European Parliament

Democracy's Red Lines

Exactly 10 days after the commemorations of the 70-th anniversary from the victory over Nazism and fascism in the European Parliament there was a debate which showed that nothing was defeated on 9 May 1945 but was just exhausted. During a two-hour long discussion, attended by Hungary Prime Minis ...
 | © European Parliament | © European Parliament

Juncker Lost Support of His Own Group on Migration but Won Applause by the Rest

The left wing, the Liberals, the Greens and the European Commission stood up against the Council and the right wing in the European Parliament on the issue of migration during the debate on Wednesday (29 April) in the European Parliament, described by EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopou ...
 | © Council of the EU | © Council of the EU

EU Decided To Work Along the Line of Least Resistance

Despite the huge expectations and the demanding situation, the leaders of the EU member states failed to agree on the most serious issues but only on those that are the easiest to do. They decided the budget for the European border agency FRONTEX to be tripled to fully finance the missions Trito ...
 | © European Commission | © European Commission

In the Mediterranean Europe Is Facing Tony Blair's Dilemma

The leaders of the EU member states have gathered in Brussels today for an extraordinary summit to try and find a common solution to the problem with the thousands of tragic deaths of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean. An occasion for the summit is the latest tragic incident last weeken ...
 | © Council of the EU | © Council of the EU

1500 Lives Later EU Takes the Growing Graveyard in the Mediterranean Seriously

Finally there is a new European level of awareness that the problem with migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean is a European one, not a problem of individual countries. This is what EU High Representative for foreign and security policy Federica Mogherini said after the joint meeting of the EU ...