We have lost control of borders, warns EU chief
MILLIONS more refugees will flood into Europe because the EU has lost control of its borders, one of its most senior officials admitted last night.
European Council president Donald Tusk said almost all of the 12million Syrians who have left their homes because of the war in their country ‘feel invited to Europe’.
Speaking before an emergency summit in Brussels, he warned the EU had ‘reached a critical point’ and needed to take urgent action ‘to regain control of our external borders’.
He said the conflict in Syria ‘will not end any time soon’, adding that there are already eight million displaced people in the country and four million in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
‘This means that today we are talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe, not thousands,’ he said.
Mr Tusk warned it is likely more will flow across the borders, ‘especially since almost all of them feel invited to Europe’.
His warning came as EU officials said they would use their budget ‘to the maximum’ to deal with the crisis, raising the prospect of Britain having to fork out tens of millions more in contributions.
Teams of guards will also be deployed to Greece and Italy – principal entry points for migrants heading to Europe – in an attempt to persuade countries in the EU’s border-free Schengen zone to remove recently reintroduced check points.
France and Germany have pushed through an EU quota system – despite protests from some eastern European countries – to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers currently in Greece, Italy and Hungary.
Britain is not part of the scheme but is accepting 20,000 refugees from camps in countries bordering Syria in the next five years.
David Cameron also pledged last night that the UK would boost its aid by £100million to support refugees in camps so they are less likely to come to Europe.
‘We must make sure people in refugee camps are properly fed and looked after, not least to help them but also to stop people wanting to make or thinking of making this very, very difficult and very dangerous journey to Europe,’ he said as he arrived at the emergency summit.
‘We need to do more to stabilise the countries and regions from which these people are coming.’
Relations between EU leaders remained acrimonious as the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, pledged to resist what he called German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
‘Stop people wanting to make journey’
‘moral imperialism’. European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker told countries to ‘put your money where your mouth is [to] combat this crisis’.
He said the EU would spend an extra £1billion, including help for affected countries such as Turkey, more cash for Frontex and Europol, the border force and law enforcement agencies, and £300million in humanitarian aid.
Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commission’s budget chief, said the EU would be ‘budgeting up to the margin and using the emergency aid reserves to the maximum’.
She added: ‘We’re staying within the EU budget ceiling but doing everything we can to redirect funds to help those seeking refuge in Europe.’
The EU had been on course to spend below its budget ceiling, but if this changes, Britain will have to hand over more money.
The ceiling for 2015 is €142billion (£104billion), but ministers have agreed to spend €141billion (£103billion), leaving €1billion (£733million) that could potentially be used.
Britain contributes between 10 and 15 per cent of the EU budget, so could end up having to pay up to £110million more than at present.
Mr Cameron said the UK would help fund a shortfall in funding for the World Food Programme after other countries reduced their contributions by up to 99 per cent.
Britain’s aid to Syrian refugees now totals £1.1billion, the highest amount in the world after the US.
The commission is planning to increase the number of rapid border intervention teams to provide guard support in ‘cases of urgent or exceptional migratory pressure’.
Mr Juncker said it was a priority to restore free movement in the Schengen zone after some countries – including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Hungary – reintroduced border controls in an attempt to deal with the crisis.