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EU: Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe (10 news stories and important documents, 11.12.15)

11 December 2015

- EU: European Commission: Communication A European Border and Coast Guard and effective management of Europe's external borders (COM 673-15, pdf), Proposals to come.

Massive expansion in Frontex's role, its all here: "the right to intervene", "European Return Intervervention Teams", hotspots, "rapid reserve pool" and more including:

"cooperation with third countries where it can coordinate operational cooperation between Member States and neighbouring third countries in the field of border management, including by deploying liaison officers to third countries or launching joint operations on Union territory or on the territory of third countries. This will notably remedy the situation which is currently faced in the cooperation with the Western Balkan countries where, despite the agreement of the third countries in question, Frontex is unable to provide operational assistance as it does not have the mandate to send border guard teams to countries such as Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

- SWITZERLAND: Parliament rejects systematic border control proposal (swissinfo.ch, link):

"Both houses of parliament have rejected a proposal by the conservative right Swiss People’s Party to perform systematic checks on people crossing the Swiss border."

- EU: Frontex: Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community:
AFIC Joint Report 2015 (pdf)

- European Parliament: Permanent relocation scheme and list of safe countries of origin: state of play (1.12.15, pdf):

"The Civil Liberties Committee discussed the permanent relocation mechanism with the Commission, which presented its proposal to MEPs, and the Council, which briefed the committee on the state of play in discussions among member states. The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) also presented the "State of play of relocation operations in the hot spots".

The EU common list of safe countries of origin was also discussed with the Commission and Council. The EASO presented the situation in the Western Balkans while FRA spoke on fundamental rights considerations."

Comment: the creation of a "permanent relocation mechanism" looks highly unlikely and the "state of play of relocation operations in the hotspots" shows that this is just not happening (see: Statewatch Compilation: Commission statistics ongoing: State of Play: Measures to Address the Refugee Crisis)

- News (11.12.15)

Europe feels fallout from Merkel migrant magnanimity (Yahoo News, link): "Brussels (AFP) - Angela Merkel may have won praise from the world for Germany's open-door policy on refugees, but a confused and divided Europe is feeling the fallout from the decision, analysts said."

'Either EU unites on migrants - or it crumbles' warns Steinmeier (euractiv, link): "The European Union must unite in its response to dealing with the huge number of refugees surging into the bloc or else it will fail, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said today (10 December). Faced with an expected influx of around one million refugees this year alone, Germany is looking to its EU partners to help manage the crisis but is running up against resistance from some countries, particularly in eastern Europe.

"Either Europe stands together and acts with solidarity in times of hardship for hundreds of thousands, or fences and barriers will again be raised," Steinmeier said in a speech to fellow Social Democrats (SPD) at their annual party congress. "And then the vision of a united Europe crumbles," added Steinmeier"

Turkish crackdown leaves refugees in limbo (Guardian, link): "With the EU outsourcing border security to Ankara, refugees are stuck in Turkey and aid groups say people-smuggling is being pushed deeper underground.... Local activists are outraged at the EU deal, and many worry Turkey will use the money provided by the EU for security and more detention centres. “Europe outsourced its border security to Turkey,” said Eda Bekçi, a lawyer who volunteers at the refugee aid group Mülteci-Der in Izmir. “But heightened security will push people-smuggling only deeper underground. They will always find holes, but the routes will become riskier and deadlier for refugees.”."

EU plans fully-fledged external border force (euobserver, link): "The European Union is considering a plan to introduce a permanent external border control force that could be deployed if it deems that a member state is in need of help to police its frontiers even without the EU country’s consent, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Friday (11 December)."

Migrant crisis: Greece, Croatia and Italy face EU legal action (BBC, link)