A U-turn in EU migration policy?

A left-wing columnist comments on the weekend EU mini-summit on migration, and expresses the opinion  that PM Orbán has won an important battle as a new consensus emerges on the need to stop ‘illegal migrants’. Other pundits, however, doubt if the proposed EU road plan will help to resolve the refugee crisis.

“Another victory for Viktor,” György Sebes writes in the title of his bitter Népszava comment on the weekend EU migration mini-summit (see BudaPost October 27). The left-wing columnist is bewildered by the sight of ”more and more EU leaders joining PM Orbán’s line on migration” and agreeing with the Hungarian PM that undocumented migrants need to be stopped by fences and border control in a joint effort of the EU.

In Magyar Nemzet, on the other hand, Károly Lóránt sees the 17-point action plan adopted at the summit as proof of the inability of the EU leadership to tackle the migration crisis. The conservative economist points out that migrants will continue to flow into Western Europe even if they need to register and even if southeast European states do not offer them organized transfers. He sees no chance to halt the flow of migrants without reconsidering the international refugee law designed in the aftermath of the Second World War. If the current EU leadership cannot stop migrants, the public will soon become even more hostile to the increasing masses of immigrants that their governments cannot take care of, which will play into the hands of radical right-wing parties, Lóránt warns.

The EU’s proposed road plan is at best a temporary solution to the refugee crisis, Csaba Poór writes in Népszabadság. He fears that even the proposed limited ‘road plan’ may not be supported by all EU member states. The main question is if Greece will be able to stop migrants, since it is becoming impossible to take care of those hundreds of thousands who have already arrived in the Schengen zone. When winter sets in, the EU leadership will have a couple of months to find a solution before the flow of migrants resumes in the spring, Poór concludes.

Tags: EU, European Commission, migration, Orbán