Afghan turmoil raises migration fears in Europe

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Afghan Refugees ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Eu

Significance A significant rise in Afghan refugees is unlikely over the coming weeks due to geographical barriers, but European governments are bracing themselves for a significant rise over the coming months. Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi says the EU is not prepared for another migration crisis. Impacts With upcoming elections, Germany and France will be wary of taking in large numbers of refugees. Division over immigration could damage EU cooperation in other areas, such as climate change or fiscal policy. The strongest opposition to migration burden-sharing is likely to come from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Common EU migration policy will be hard to achieve

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Illegal Immigration ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
To Come ◽  
Run Up ◽  
East West ◽  
The Eu

Significance The EU is still struggling to formulate a coordinated response to the migration crisis, but it has managed to make significant cuts in illegal immigration by tightening control of its external borders and reducing the number of irregular crossings of the Mediterranean. Impacts An EU-Africa summit in November will review measures to prevent people from trying to come to Europe in the first place. The number of people crossing the Mediterranean has fallen, but for each individual attempting the journey the risk of dying has increased. The sense of being abandoned by other EU countries could boost Euroscepticism in the run-up to next year’s election in Italy. Conflicts over migration policy are likely to deepen the east-west divide within the EU.

Raspail, racism, and migration: Implications for radicalization in a polarizing world

2020 ◽  
pp. 136346152093092
Author(s):  
G. E. Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Know How ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
The Eu

Jean Raspail’s controversial 1973 novel The camp of the saints predicts mass migration to Europe that will destroy European civilization. Decades later, the book has accurately predicted the hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Europe annually, prompting a continent-wide crisis. From Lesbos and Lampedusa to the Canary Islands and Calais, no one seems to know how to stem the flow of humanity. Borders are being resurrected, despite Schengen and European Union (EU) agreements, in an effort to control the movement of populations. European governments disagree on how to proceed and some are suggesting that the EU could be torn apart by differing approaches to the problem. But does this have to be the response to the migration crisis? This paper compares the predictions of The camp of the saints to events in Europe today and critiques the book’s conclusions with regard to what is an ancient phenomenon: movements of migrants from surplus to deficit labor settings. The paper will also evaluate the response to migrants in the United States under its populist president, Donald Trump, and will review related issues in other parts of the world: Turkey, Russia, and Canada. Contrary to Raspail’s predictions, world leaders will need to accept what has already become a de facto reality: large scale admission of migrants and refugees to the EU and North America, as full citizens, will be the only realistic way to preserve prosperity in the years to come.

International leadership re-/constructed?

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Krzyżanowski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
European Union Policy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Policy Discourses

This article analyses European Union policy discourses on climate change from the point of view of constructions of identity. Articulated in a variety of policy-related genres, the EU rhetoric on climate change is approached as example of the Union’s international discourse, which, contrary to other areas of EU policy-making, relies strongly on discursive frameworks of international and global politics of climate change. As the article shows, the EU’s peculiar international – or even global – leadership in tackling the climate change is constructed in an ambivalent and highly heterogeneous discourse that runs along several vectors. While it on the one hand follows the more recent, inward-looking constructions of Europe known from the EU policy and political discourses of the 1990s and 2000s, it also revives some of the older discursive logics of international competition known from the earlier stages of the European integration. In the analysis, the article draws on the methodological apparatus of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies. Furthering the DHA studies of EU policy and political discourses, the article emphasises the viability of the discourse-historical methodology applied in the combined analysis of EU identity and policy discourses.

China-US deal sets stage for new climate change regime

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bilateral Agreement ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Game Changer

Significance The United States has already committed, in an unprecedented deal with China in November 2014, to reducing its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025 (an improvement on its previous 17% goal). China in return pledged that its emissions would peak around 2030. This agreement is a game-changer for combating global climate change, since the two countries are the world's largest sources of carbon emissions, together accounting for 40% of the total, and were not covered under the now-expired Kyoto Protocol. Impacts Washington is poised to reclaim its place, lost after Kyoto, as a leader in global efforts against climate change. US-China climate cooperation initiatives could serve as templates for other developing countries. There are new opportunities for trilateral cooperation involving the EU. Fears that the bilateral agreement makes the UNFCCC obsolete are unwarranted, but it could preclude more ambitious efforts.

Hungarian Fidesz illiberalism will defy EU criticism

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
To Come ◽  
Systematic Response ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Theory Lead

Significance The EP vote could in theory lead to sanctions under Article 7 of the EU Treaty (TEU). An 'illiberal state' has emerged in Hungary since 2010, profoundly and durably modifying the functioning of the political system, entrenching the power of the ruling Fidesz party and weakening the opposition. Impacts Fidesz will renew its strong majority in the 2018 elections and further consolidate its power in years to come. Member states are unlikely to agree on the deep reform of EU rule of law procedures that would allow a systematic response. Neighbouring states and candidate countries are likely to drift increasingly away from the liberal model.

Trump Warsaw visit will widen intra-European rifts

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
Russian President ◽  
Arms Exports ◽  
The Eu

Significance Poland is looking to forge closer ties with Washington to establish its leadership in CEE, counterbalance Franco-German dominance of the EU and present a united front against Russia. Other CEE countries are looking elsewhere for allies, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Hungary demonstrates. Impacts Germany and Austria will move to maintain influence in CEE, probably through partnering with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Russia will work to avoid any threat to its natural gas monopoly in CEE, with Bulgaria and Hungary its levers of influence. Trump will point to gas and arms exports to Poland as a US foreign policy success, though US hawks will remain sceptical about Russia.

EU foreign policy fragmentation will increase

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Eu Foreign Policy ◽  
Competition Rules ◽  
National Champions ◽  
The Eu

Subject Structural challenges to EU foreign policy. Significance The EU lacks a consolidated foreign policy: member states play a predominant role in external affairs. However, given such domestic challenges as political fragmentation, adverse demographic change and rising populism, national foreign policy faces a future of more volatility and uncertainty. This could increase the need to bolster the EU’s foreign policy powers. Impacts Positions on Russian sanctions and the Iran nuclear deal show the Council able to form a consensus on some important external issues. Germany and France will push for changed EU competition rules to allow ‘national champions’ to emerge against Chinese and US competitors. Regional neighbours in Northern and Southern Europe may deepen inter-governmentalism and cooperation, respectively. The EU could become a global trendsetter in climate change, especially if Germany and Poland agree to carbon neutrality by 2050.

German EU presidency will prioritise the recovery plan

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Structural Reforms ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Recovery Plan ◽  
The Eu

Subject Germany's EU presidency. Significance Germany will assume the six-month EU rotating presidency on July 1. The presidency will give Berlin greater influence in setting the European Council’s agenda and finding compromise between member states. Its standout priority will be to foster a compromise agreement on the EU’s recovery plan and 2021-27 budget. Impacts Any conditionality or ‘structural’ reforms associated with the EU recovery plan will be negatively received in Italy. To keep relations with China stable, Germany will focus on cooperation on mutual interests, such as COVID-19 and climate change. Germany could remain committed to fiscal expansion beyond the pandemic if the Greens are in the next government in 2021.

Falling numbers will not ease EU migration tension

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu

Subject EU immigration division. Significance Immigration to Europe has fallen substantially over the past three years, largely because of stricter rules in EU member states and enhanced cooperation with the EU's neighbours. This downward trend, however, coincides with growing tensions between member states over how to tackle immigration once migrants and refugees enter European territory. Impacts Unable to agree on an effect asylum seekers reform, the EU will continue funding African countries to stop irregular migratory flows. Disengagement of EU search and rescue assets and more reliance on under-trained North African coast guards will make sea migration deadlier. Divergent views on immigration burden-sharing could worsen foreign relations between populists in Italy and those in Hungary and Poland.

Greece and the European Union

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyros Blavoukos
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Adjustment Process ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Static Approach ◽  
Negative Publicity ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Eu

Based on negative publicity related to the financial turmoil and the migration crisis one could perhaps classify Greece as a problematic EU partner. This contribution argues that this static approach does not fully describe the complexity of EU-Greece relations. Looking at the historical evolution of this relationship from a more macroscopic point of view it identifies periods of convergence and divergence. It reinstates the limits of the European adjustment pressures in inducing modernization and accounts for the crises episodes by reference to some idiosyncratic features of the domestic sociopolitical contestation. The contribution discusses the valuable lessons learned by the handling of the crises both for Greece and the EU. It stresses that the Greek public disenchantment with the EU that is inexorably linked with the extreme societal burden of the adjustment process is not an isolated phenomenon. Like in many other EU countries, much of the criticism is directed toward the current scope and direction of European integration rather than on the merits and value of the integration venture per se. What is urgently required for the whole European demos is a new “grand bargain” that will provide the necessary vision for the years to come. This will condition the future evolution of the EU-Greece relationship.

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