Migrant crisis shows up dictatorial EU

Just as the European sovereign debt crisis exposed the inherent problems of adopting a single currency and monetary policy for several diverse economies, so the arrival in Europe of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Syria and elsewhere is revealing the flaws in a regime of shared borders and free movement between EU member states. And just as the euro’s problems ultimately flow from Germany’s disproportionate size and strength (the right interest rate for the German powerhouse cannot be right for minnows such as Greece), so the Schengen system of borderless travel is collapsing because of the German economy’s attraction to migrants.

Germany has encouraged migrants to come to its territory. The wisdom of that choice notwithstanding, it is Germany’s right as a sovereign nation to do so. But other countries, especially to the east, are less enthusiastic about new arrivals, who must inevitably cross their lands to reach Germany. What about the rights of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, all nominally sovereign nations? The answer from Brussels reveals much about the state of the union and the balance of power in the EU. Overriding eastern objections, Germany, with French backing, forced through a deal requiring members to accept a share of 120,000 refugees; nations that do not comply are threatened with legal action and financial penalties. This is troubling, and not just because of the tensions it will inevitably create between the older EU members to the west and newer arrivals from the former Soviet bloc.

Not so long ago, British eurosceptics who predicted that the EU would force democratically elected sovereign governments to accept unwanted foreign nationals – many of whom practise a religion different to that of the population they join – would have been accused by the Brussels elite of dystopian scaremongering. Yet that is precisely what is happening today in Europe.

Britain, happily, has opted out of common asylum rules, but these developments are still of great concern to this country. The migrant crisis has proved again that the European establishment has no respect for the will of member states (and their electorates) who question its orthodoxy. Despite British ministers’ optimistic claims to the contrary, that does not bode well for David Cameron’s attempts to negotiate a substantially altered new membership agreement for Britain.