Tuesday
16th Oct 2018
EU member states and the European Commission are pressing ahead with plans to possibly use Morocco and Tunisia as countries to offload asylum seekers and migrants - part of larger bid to create a so-called "safe third country" list.
The EU commission, in a novel approach back in 2015, linked EU agriculture policy to humanitarian aid. Did it work?
Both the EU and Turkey are on the receiving end of Trump tariffs, which placed them in the same camp against the US.
"The European Union ... operates on the basis of rules, not threats," the commission said, after Italy warned it would not pay into the EU budget if other states did not take migrants.
Rosengard, a migrant district in Malmo, Sweden, has a reputation for gang warfare and social deprivation, but some young people there are pushing for change.
Italy's far-right interior minister was happy to use EU funds to escort the Aquarius rescue boat to Spain, while boasting he was "closing down the ports" to migrants.
EU interior ministers are meeting in Luxembourg this Friday to discuss migration. The Austrian EU presidency is hoping to reach a consensus on Dublin reforms and a concept of 'mandatory solidarity' after briefing 27 EU states bilaterally over the summer.
More people in Libya are being inducted into slavery as people-traffickers try to monetise their investment by selling them. A senior UN refugee agency official described it as an unintended side effect of the reduction of migrant boat departures.
A man is seeking EU support to release his parents from Egyptian prisons, where both have been detained without charge for over 450 days, the mother in solitary confinement. The pressure comes amid EU plans to increase cooperation with Cairo.
Issues of sovereignty remain entrenched following a proposal by the European Commission to expand the EU's border and coast guard, also known as Frontex, to 10,000. But EU leaders maintain a "basic consensus" of support had been reached.
EU vetting procedures for Libyan coast guard training could pose a security threat, among disagreement on how to handle unfit applicants.
Leaders ate Wiener schnitzel and discussed EU fragmentation on migrants, Brexit, and rule of law in the Salzburg theatre in Austria.
The European Commission's rationale for reforming Frontex is flawed.
EU council president Donald Tusk wants to discuss deepening relations with authoritarian Egypt, as a model of migrant reduction, with EU heads of state and government at a meeting in Salzburg, Austria on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in his state of the union announced a new relationship with Africa. On Friday, his subordinates outlined the vision, promising jobs and growth by leveraging public funds for investments.
Th next EU budget is the most pivotal opportunity to advance a vision for Europe rooted in human rights and that builds a Union that works for all its members.
Uncontrolled migration at a global level finds very little support. This is a reality which every European politician should heed.
The European Commission wants more border controls, detentions and returns for rejected asylum seekers. The harsh tone is part of a broader anti-migrant mood. "We are treated like rats," one asylum seeker stuck on a Greek island told this website.
Every year, almost 100,000 Europeans seek asylum in EU countries. The number of applications continues to grow, but the issue remains on the margins of political debate.
Czech and Slovenian authorities have voiced alarm over the emergence of armed anti-migrant militias in the two central European countries.
Fewer people are trying to cross the Mediterranean, but more of them are dying as EU and NGO rescue missions dwindle and the Libyan coastguard takes over.
Immigration and the far-right hogged the spotlight at this week's high-level EU meetings in a sign of the times in Europe.
Italy is planning to hijack an EU meeting on the Western Balkans to talk about migrant boats instead.
Top officials from Italy's ruling Five Star Movement have said EU funds to Hungary should be suspended because it was unwilling to take in migrants.
Swedes head to the polls in September in a national parliamentary election, while Bavarians vote in October in a state election. In both elections, voters' nativist sentiments may well help determine the outcome.
It seems as if the EU and some member states are trying to 'sell' European external action in Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary as a key to solving internal issues – and thus pulling these missions into today's populist debates.
Death rates of people crossing from Libya to reach Italy has spiked from 1 in 64 in the first five months to 1 in 16 in June and July alone. Yet the EU maintains their safety is a main priority.
Despite all that EU money, Greece seems to do a worse job educating asylum-seeker children than countries like Jordan and Turkey.
The mandate for Operation Sophia, the EU's naval mission in the Mediterranean sea, ends in December. Demands to change it, including new rules on disembarkation, are set to be agreed within the next few weeks.
The European Commission says it is ready to boost spending in Morocco when it comes to stop migrant hopefuls from reaching Spain by boat. The money follows demands for help from Madrid as irregular arrival numbers spike in Spain.
The European Commission declined to comment on an Italian boat that reportedly returned rescued migrants at sea back to Libya - but instead said the country is too dangerous to be considered as a place safe enough for disembarkation.
At a meeting with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte, the US president said that other EU countries should adopt the same tough line on migration.
The European Commission unveiled concept papers on centres in the EU and platforms in north African states where disembarked migrants would be screened for protection or sent home. Plans build on EU summit conclusions but remain vague.
