Emergency meeting of the EU convened to sort out differences over migrant issue

Brussels: Germany and France have started frantic efforts to close the rift created in the European Union on migration. As part of the same efforts, a ‘Mini Summit’ of the European Union has been arranged in Brussels, informed Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Union. This meeting is being organised to try and create a minimum consensus over the migrant issue before the main meeting to be held next week. Sources claim that heads of 10 countries including Germany and France, will attend the meeting.

Since the past few days, the tone against migrants is becoming more and more aggressive in the major countries of Europe. The warnings issued by Hungary and Austria about stopping the migrants, Italy’s refusal to allow migrant ships to dock and the ultimatum issued by a party in Merkel’s ruling coalition in Germany has created quite a turmoil in Europe. This sequence of events has raised questions about the political future of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had opened the doors of Europe to migrants, and therefore Merkel is making frantic efforts to save face.

A decisive meeting of the European Union about the immigrant issue is scheduled to be held on 28th and 29th June. The European Union’s policies about immigrants will be decided in this meeting. There are indications of a stormy meeting on the 28th, as major countries of the EU have already taken a firm position about the issue. There are also indications that the ‘Open Door Policy’ and ‘Quota System’, that was being implemented by the EU so far, will be scrapped.

Taking this possibility into account, Germany and France and the EU leadership, who are in support of the migrants, have called for this emergency meeting on Sunday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel needs to prove her influence on the domestic political front or else the Merkel government can collapse. Hence, Merkel has used the influence of the position that Germany holds in the European Union to put pressure on the Union’s President Juncker to convene the Sunday meeting.

Juncker, while announcing the meeting on Wednesday, informed that an unofficial meeting will be held on Sunday to discuss the migrant issue. Juncker clarified that against the background of the meeting next week, all countries which are interested in finding a solution to the European migrant issue should attend. As per the sources in the EU, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Malta, Austria, Greece and Italy are expected to attend the meeting on Sunday, along with Germany and France.

Meanwhile, senior officials responsible for the migrants in France have warned that Europe has reached a decisive stage on this issue and that this problem has created a severe divide in Europe.

Italy threatens to boycott the meeting

Rome: ‘The text of the meeting on Sunday has been pre-written by Germany and France. Instead of helping Italy, they seem to be weighing us down with more migrants. If this continues, Italy will not participate in the meeting. We will at least save the cost of travelling,’ were the blunt words used by the Italian Minister for Interior Security, Matteo Salvini to threaten a boycott on the Sunday meeting.

Part of the agenda for Sunday’s meeting has been disclosed and it stresses upon the restriction of further movements of the migrants after landing in Europe. In today’s scenario, the migrants first land in Italy and Greece. Therefore, the Union has indicated that these two countries will have to bear the major brunt of the migrants.