Sunday

4th Jun 2023

Migration hijacks EU-Balkan summit

  • Most migrants entering the EU are now taking the Western Balkan route (Photo: Eszter Zalan)

Migration is set to dominate a summit on the Western Balkans as senior commission officials, foreign ministers, and leaders gather in Vienna.

The summit on Thursday (27 August) comes amid the worst refugee crisis in Europe since WWII, as thousands of asylum seekers from Syria and elsewhere scramble across the Balkans to reach Hungary, as well as risking sea crossings to Italy or Greece.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Some 2,300 died in the first six months of this year. On Wednesday, another 50 were found dead in overcrowded boats off the Libyan coast.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, in a statement said the summit will be used to “tackle security and migration issues to the need to address economic and political difficulties in many countries”.

Mogherini, along with commission vice-president for energy union Maros Sefcovic, and EU commissioner for enlargement Johannes Hahn, are attending.

With most migrants now opting to take the Western Balkan route instead of first landing in Italy, the issue is likely to become a focal point in a summit initially slated to discuss topics like regional co-operation and infrastructure.

Frontex, the EU border agency, says over 100,000 people took the Western Balkan route at the start of the year. In 2014, during the same period, the figure was around 8,000.

They pass through Greece and into Gevgelija, a border town in Macedonia, then head to Serbia and into Hungary before moving on to other member states, particularly Germany.

“What we are witnessing at Europe’s borderlands is symptomatic of the absurdity of the European asylum system", said Gauri van Gulik, deputy director at Amnesty International for Europe and Central Asia.

He said the summit should be used to rework EU asylum laws and practices, noting refugees fleeing war should not have to risk hazardous journeys from Greece to reach the EU’s mainland.

Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, in an interview with the BBC, said the point-of-entry rules on asylum under the so-called Dublin regulation "is not working anymore".

"If we do not have functional border controls at the external borders of the European Unoin, the whole idea of a European Unoin without borders inside is in danger."

Balkan nationals have also been a source of asylum demands despite having little chance of receiving it.

Albanian nationals top the list of asylum claims from the region to Germany, prompting calls to place the six Balkan nations on a safe country of origin list.

Macedonia last week declared a two-day state of emergency, sealing its border with paramilitary police, who then fired flash bombs and tear gas at crowds of migrants.

But migrants there are now able to pass through the border with relative ease and are escorted onto busses and trains heading to Serbia.

“There are no huge groups of people waiting on the border right now,” Zoran Drangovski from the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, which is at the border, told this website.

Some 3,000 are expected to make the border crossing every day for the next few months, according to the UNHCR.

Meanwhile, Hungary is discussing whether to deploy troops to help secure its border with Serbia after thousands slipped past its razor-wire fence in the past few days.

On Wednesday, police fired tear gas at around 200 migrants at a reception centre near the Serb border. Hungary’s right-wing government is also planning to criminalise irregular border crossing.

The Czech Republic and Bulgaria have also explored military options.

The European Commission, for its part, ahead of the summit said it will release an additional €1.5 million in humanitarian funding to assist refugees and migrants in Serbia and Macedonia.

EU relying on 'ineffective' Greek body to probe pushback video

The European Commission says it cannot act on latest revelations by the New York Times of illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers until authorities in Greece first conduct a national investigation. Critics say those same authorities are politically compromised and ineffective.

Latest News

  1. Spanish PM to delay EU presidency speech due to snap election
  2. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  3. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  4. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  5. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  6. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  7. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  8. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us