A hard test for EU

The turmoil in North Africa has seen over 25,000 immigrants arrive on Italian and Maltese shores. This summer, an even greater influx is expected. Many of these French-speaking immigrants were given temporary residence permits by the Italian authorities. The Schengen area’s passport-free zone meant that they could then travel immediately onward to France. Last month, France dramatically halted trains attempting to cross its Italian border, and a bitter dispute erupted. Meanwhile, the Italians felt that their EU partners were not doing enough to assist them. French and Italian pressure has now led the European Commission to propose changes to the Schengen agreement. The current rules only allow the re-introduction of border controls in cases of a danger to public health or national security. However, Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem recently said: “it may also be necessary to foresee the temporary reintroduction of limited internal border controls under very exceptional circumstances, such as where a part of the external border comes under heavy unexpected pressure”.The Commission has also proposed giving the European Parliament a role in deciding when “exceptional circumstances” arise. However, the BBC reports that 13 EU governments oppose giving MEPs the power of co-decision.Immigration issues will also be discussed at a crucial European leaders’ meeting in Brussels on 24 June. At the June meeting, there will be more than the North African crisis at play. Europe’s leaders are acutely aware of the rapid rise of far-right eurosceptic anti-immigration parties in many EU countries: France, Finland, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Austria and Italy. These movements are often also concerned with immigration from within the EU bloc. However, the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament this week declared that Romania and Bulgaria are now ready to join the Schengen zone, despite French and German opposition.As regards the EU’s external border, the European Commission has asked for increased funding for Frontex, the EU agency responsible. A system of EU border guards has also been proposed. Mediterranean countries that receive immigrants by sea are seeking changes to the Dublin II regulation, which requires that EU immigrants be processed in the country in which they first arrive. Greece and others are calling for an EU-wide approach to immigration and asylum by 2012. Until the North African crisis erupted, the Greek border with Turkey was where most illegal immigrants entered the EU. Malta and Italy have also now requested the activation of EU Directive 55/2001, which allows the dispersal of a massive influx of migrants around the EU. In response to the current crisis, Commissioner Malmstroem said that “secure borders does not mean that we are constructing fortress Europe” and that, “It must still be possible for people to seek international protection in the European Union and we must also keep it open for the labour migration that we so desperately need”. However, the primary reason that the EU “desperately” needs labour migration is that its birthrates are far below replacement level. The EU is therefore in a situation where it needs immigration, just as its electorates are becoming increasingly hostile to it. Prof Peter McDonald, a demographer with the Australian National University estimates that – without mass immigration – on current birthrates, Italy will lose 86 percent of its population by the end of this century; Spain 85 percent, Germany 83 percent and Greece 74 percent. Meanwhile, the North African population is youthful and expanding. This crisis will not go away soon.Like the euro currency crisis, the immigration crisis has exposed deep divisions in the EU. Once a taboo topic, immigration is now to the fore all across Europe – we must hope that the debate remains civil.The EU is the body best placed to co-ordinate a coherent solution to the crisis. If it fails to do so – or if it fails to listen to the European peoples – the danger is that they will continue to vote for far-right eurosceptic parties in ever-greater numbers all across the continent.