Malta to participate in today’s mini-migration summit in Brussels as migration crisis festers

Lorne Cook European Union leaders will today try to find common ground for tackling the problem of migrants arriving on Europe’s shores in search of better lives – a growing political crisis threatening to undermine the entire EU.

The leaders of about 16 countries – more than half the 28-nation bloc – will take part in what is being billed as ‘informal talks’ in Brussels, ahead of a full EU summit on 28-29 June, where migration will top the agenda.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that the meeting involves “talking with particularly affected nations about all problems connected with migration”. She said the hope is to see if “we can reach bi, tri- or even multi-national agreements to better solve certain problems.”

The arrival of more than one million people in 2015, most fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq, exposed glaring deficiencies in EU migrant reception capacities and asylum laws. It has fuelled tensions among member states, and anti-migrant parties have won votes by fomenting public fear of foreigners.

At the heart of the problem lie deep divisions over who should take responsibility for arriving migrants – often Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Greece and, increasingly, Spain, how long they should be required to accommodate them and what should be done to help those EU countries hardest hit.

The problem crystallised last week in a row between Italy’s new populist government, Malta and France over who should take responsibility for 630 people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, the main departure point for people trying to reach Europe.

Amid the mud-slinging, Spain’s new Socialist government agreed to take in the migrants.

By Friday, hard-line Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was again demanding that Malta, the EU’s smallest country, allow a rescue ship carrying hundreds of migrants to land because it was in the island’s waters.

Like everything to do with migrants in Europe lately, even this meeting is proving controversial. What began as talks between half-a-dozen leaders now involves at least 16, as others demanded to take part. Four countries in Eastern Europe – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – refused to attend.

Referring to hasty arrangements and a domestic crisis over migration policies within Merkel’s coalition government, the fervently anti-migrant Hun-

The leaders of about 16 countries more than half the 28-nation bloc

will take part in what is being billed as “informal talks” in Brussels, ahead of a full EU summit on June 2829, where migration will top the agenda

garian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, said: “We understand that countries have domestic political difficulties, but this cannot result in pan-European confusion.”

Alexander Winterstein, spokesman for the European Commission where the talks will take place, said: “This is an open invitation. Nobody is excluded, everybody is invited. Nobody is forced to attend, either.”

With plans to reform Europe’s asylum laws bogged down, in the coming days EU leaders will affirm their intention to stop migrants leaving North African shores by paying countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia to hold people until their eligibility for asylum can be established.

Ironically, the tough talk comes as migrant entries are falling significantly. The UN’s refugee agency says that around 80,000 people are expected to arrive by sea this year, around half the number last year.

“We do not have a crisis of numbers. We continue to have a crisis of political will,” UNHCR Europe chief Sophie Magennis said on Monday.