Germany's cosiness is coming under pressure in Europe

The migration pressure on Germany is increasing every day. In addition to 1.04 million Ukrainians who were taken in immediately because of the war, 244,132 people applied for asylum in this country last year - an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous year and the highest value since the record year 2016.

States and municipalities are desperately looking for accommodation. At the beginning of the week, the three municipal umbrella organizations in Baden-Württemberg passed a "Stuttgart Declaration for a realistic refugee policy" - a cry for help to Berlin. Numerous Prime Ministers, such as Hendrik Wüst from North Rhine-Westphalia and Stefan Weil from Lower Saxony, are now demanding a “refugee summit” in the Chancellery because of the emergency, which could take place before Easter.

In Austria, the situation is even more dramatic: In the neighboring country, the number of asylum applications in 2022 almost tripled compared to the previous year (108,781). In the communities there are always protests against new refugee accommodation - and according to surveys, the right-wing populist FPÖ is now the strongest party in the country.

The migration crisis is back, albeit not as severe as in the record years of 2015 and 2016. Last year, the EU registered 330,000 illegal border crossings. Almost a million asylum applications were made. And what is Brussels doing?

On Thursday, the 27 EU interior ministers will discuss the situation – once again. For eight years they have been at loggerheads over these questions: What is the best way to prevent migrants from fleeing? How should those seeking protection be distributed within the EU? And how can we prevent illegal migrants from simply staying in Europe despite a deportation notice?

The fact is: of 340,000 return decisions in the EU in 2021, only one in five was enforced. Two years earlier it was 29 percent.

There is also another point of contention: What can be done to prevent migrants from entering EU territory in the first place? When it comes to protecting the EU's external borders, Germany has been following a soft course for years: consistent border controls, yes, but please not too harsh, for example by processing asylum applications in third countries, erecting fences at the external borders or by immediately rejecting migrants at the ports of departure , for example in Tunisia or Libya.

Austria's conservative Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner, sees things differently. “Organized people-smuggling crime must not determine who comes to us. We need asylum procedures in third countries outside Europe to prevent deaths in the Mediterranean or in trucks," he told WELT. According to the minister, a credible asylum policy requires quick decisions. "Anyone who has no right to asylum must leave the EU."

The German "cuddly line" applies not only to external border protection, but also to the so-called visa lever. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) in particular is slowing down here. So she is likely to clash again with her colleagues from Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands at the meeting of EU interior ministers on Thursday. The visa lever is a kind of thumbscrew for countries of origin that was introduced in 2019.

According to this, the interior ministers of the member states can decide, at the suggestion of the EU Commission, to make the visa conditions for the third country in question more difficult - for example through higher visa fees, longer processing times or shorter validity periods - if it does not cooperate in the readmission of illegal migrants.

Faeser is skeptical. It relies more on incentives than pressure. Her credo is: If you want countries of origin to take back migrants, you have to make sufficiently fair offers for legal migration to these countries. This approach sounds humane at first, but from the point of view of the countries of origin it is definitely a double-edged sword: Only well-trained people usually have chances of legal migration to the EU, but they are urgently needed in their home country to build up the country.

Ultimately, the visa lever – as well as additional financial aid – should be used so that the home countries conclude so-called repatriation agreements as quickly as possible. It is a “carrot and stick” policy. The concept is that if a country is willing to agree on a repatriation agreement and take back its nationals who have fled, it should be rewarded with extra payments.

Around two thirds of the deportations of asylum seekers from Germany fail. 23,337 deportation measures could not be carried out last year. Can the rule of law be demonstrated? The police union boss Rainer Wendt speaks of "errors in the system".

Source: WORLD

If the country refuses, the visa conditions can be made more difficult. That's the theory. In practice, however, the concept works relatively poorly. Since 2004, the EU Commission has only been able to conclude legally binding repatriation agreements with 19 countries, most recently with Belarus in 2020. Important countries such as Tunisia, Egypt or Morocco are not even included. And the visa lever has so far only been successful in one case: The Gambia.

Frustrated with Brussels, Austria has now taken the reins into its own hands. After more and more Moroccans have been coming to the country since the beginning of the year, Karner and Chancellor Karl Nehammer recently traveled to Morocco for consultations. Now both sides are working flat out on a bilateral repatriation agreement. But not only the government in Vienna is wondering: why is the EU Commission unable to negotiate such agreements for all member states? Then at least the deportation rates would be significantly higher.