The crisis caused by the flood of refugees to Europe from Syria and other troubled areas continues to unsettle the European Union. The generosity shown by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has come to haunt her politically, and the largely visa-free area governed by Schengen is bristling with new fences.
How far some EU member countries have travelled is clear from Denmark’s new move to legislate measures to strip all incoming refugees of valuables to support their stay and possible deportation. According to new amendments, they will be allowed to keep valuables of sentimental value such as wedding rings and keep up to 10,000 Danish kroner in cash.
The crisis of conscience facing Europe was accentuated by the robbing of and sexual assaults on women in Cologne, Germany, by, among others, asylum seekers during New Year’s Eve celebrations, changing the German mood. It was fully exploited by the far- right and anti-immigrant parties. Hungary was the first to erect fences to keep refugees out, but Denmark has crossed a civilisational barrier in seeking to rob refugees of the little they possess.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen declared on Christmas Day that the 1951 Refugee Convention might need revising. Indeed, the unprecedented flow of refugees into Europe since World War II has given a fillip to anti-immigrant parties across the continent, even in Germany. Germany and Sweden have been the two most generous countries, but no member has gone to the length of the Danish rulers in demonising refugees.
Even Germany and Sweden have had to institute border checks and erect fences, because administering and housing refugees for these two countries have become near impossible. Some 1.1 million refugees have entered Germany alone last year leading to public grumbling about the burdens imposed.
A formula to distribute the load among member states led nowhere, with most refusing to take in refugees except of their choice. Germany is now planning new laws on deporting asylum seekers committing crimes.
Complicating the picture is the new conservative governing (Law and Justice) party in Poland seeking to impose control over media and taking a hard nationalist line on its European Union obligations. Yet, Poland has been the great success story, a former Communist state having integrated into the EU and made good economically. It was duly rewarded by its former Prime Minister Donald Tusk being elevated to a key office. Warsaw’s relations with Berlin are now under strain.
Misfortunes, as the saying goes, never come alone. Hanging over the EU is the question of Britain staying in the EU. It wants new concession to remain in, and Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum to decide the issue even as other members will strain to meet his demands.
Besides, the recession and slow economic growth have taken their toll. The young no longer enthuse over the benefits of EU membership because, as things have turned out, they missed out on the boom years and find it difficult to find suitable employment.
In her 10-year stint as Chancellor, Ms Merkel became the uncrowned queen of the EU, given her sway over domestic politics and the fact that Germany is the dominant economic power of the continent. The refugee crisis has now weakened her hold over power at home even though there is no alternative leader to challenge her.
The EU’s greatest achievement has been borderless travel across member countries, with such exceptions as the United Kingdom. Euro, the common European currency adopted by some members, has been more problematic because it is not underpinned by common fiscal policies. The repeated Greek crises have underlined the faultlines even as it was Germany again to the rescue.
The greatest misfortune to have befallen the EU is that just when the group needed a strong hand to take charge, Ms Merkel’s authority is undermined by her having to fight domestic battles even while steadying the EU ship. But the EU, after its golden years, is staring at a different world with differing dreams.
The knitting together of the former East European countries has been completed although the EU has been over-ambitious and plainly wrong to try to integrate the land mass of Ukraine with a large population bordering Russia into the Western orbit. It is unwise on several counts: The close religious and folkloric ties with Moscow and its proximity to the Russian heartland. The goal of wresting Ukraine away from Russia was never a realistic one, based on the theory that Moscow had sunk in status. Despite the EU’s collective view of President Vladimir Putin, any Russian leader worth his salt would rebel at the West seeking to co-opt Ukraine.
One result of Western moves has been the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation.
The larger question posed by the refugee crisis and the morose mood of the young is the future direction of the grouping. After Europe’s centuries of wars and fighting, the original Franco-German reconciliation leading by stages to the coal and steel community, the European Economic Community and finally the EU was a stupendous achievement. And Europe saw decades of peace and prosperity. Now that Europe has encountered such divisive issues as accommodating refugees, with two members, Hungary and Poland, questioning the very basis of the union premised on liberal democracy, a crisis point has been reached.
What keeps the European enterprise from disintegrating is the fear of consequences.
But the idealism that brought Europe together and, for the former Communist countries, the bright lights of the West are over. And member states such as Poland’s conservatives want to return to their nativist beliefs and Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, apparently does not believe in the concept of a liberal democracy.
Thus the political fortunes of Ms Merkel are entangled with the European Union’s ability to survive its litany of crises. A beginning can be made by seeking reconciliation with Russia. Even in its reduced state, the Russian Federation is too important a geopolitical factor to ignore, or class as an enemy.
