State of the Union

A German-dominated United States of Europe with its respective European Army is on the rise — out in the open.

The Fourth Reich has landed.

 

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Own report) – The EU must develop the capacity “to shape global affairs” and act as “architect of tomorrow’s world,” declared Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission during his “State of the Union” speech yesterday. The speech is modeled on the famous annual “State of the Union Address” presented by the US President to a joint session of Congress. Juncker particularly wants to accelerate the EU’s militarization and the fortification of its external borders. While the German-dominated Union is striving to become a global power, at all costs, tensions within the EU are growing significantly. The disciplinary action adopted yesterday by the European Parliament against Hungary, which has been undermining democratic rights for years, exacerbates the conflict between the West European centers of power and the EU’s eastern members. The blatant prosperity gap between the EU’s center and the impoverished periphery continues unabated. Serious violations of human rights, particularly against refugees, accompany the internally disunited Union’s striving for a global role.

Poland tells EU to BRING IT: Warsaw vows to fight penalty for refusing to accept refugees

Poland and the EU are lcoked in a battle over migrant quotas [Getty]

 

THE Polish ministry of foreign affairs is set to contest European Commission plans to penalise the country for refusing to accept any refugees as part of an EU relocation scheme.

The revelation comes after the Commission said it would prepare penalties over refugee inaction for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

EU’s Frontex launches rapid intervention pool

REUTERS

 

Starting December 7, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, will be able to deploy as many as 1,500 border guards at short notice to assist member states in emergency situations at their EU’s external borders.

Laboratories of Forced Emigration

BERLIN (Own report) – While the EU is sealing itself off by fortifying borders, including in North Africa, it is establishing a system of “concentric circles” of refugee camps, write Berlin’s government advisors in a recent analysis on the German-European policy of warding off refugees. In the future, “EU refugee policy” will most likely be characterized by the “synergy of border fortifications, camps and quotas,” according to the analysis published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Since some time, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (Frontex) has been considerably enhanced. The EU Commission has called for increased deployment of drones and satellite surveillance systems to seal the borders. Admission quotas would de facto eliminate the right of asylum for individuals. Above all, the EU is establishing a system of camps in “concentric circles” extending from the EU’s center of prosperity all the way to North Africa and Syria. These camps can “easily” be transformed into “detention centers,” warns the SWP, making reference to the detention “hot spots” in Greece. These “hotspots” had recently placed the EU in direct conflict with aid organizations, the United Nations and the Pope. Detention centers for refugees, built with EU financing, also exist in Libya and Turkey.

The European Solution (II)

BERLIN/ATHENS/ANKARA (Own report) – Massive international protests are accompanying the start of EU mass deportations of refugees to Turkey. The first 750 refugees are due to be transported from the Greek islands to the Turkish coast between today, Monday, and Wednesday. More than 5,400 are being detained on the islands in EU “hotspots” to prevent them from escaping subsequent deportation measures. Several UN agencies have publicly criticized the EU measures – largely enforced by the German government – as being in violation of international law. Clinging to these measures of mass deportation, Berlin and Brussels are heading toward an open conflict with the United Nations. In protest, international aid organizations have suspended their activities in these detention “hotspots,” refusing to become complicit in the EU’s scheme. Protest by refugees is escalating on the islands and mainland of Greece. The government in Athens is expecting massive resistance to these mass deportations. However, to ensure successful deportations, Berlin has dispatched German personnel – members of the Federal Police and of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) – to the Greek islands. For the German government, these, under international law illegal measures, are of strategic importance.

EU-Turkey deal gets reality check

The EU-Turkey deal, aiming to stop the flow of migrants into Europe via the Aegean Sea, came into effect on Sunday (20 March) but several outstanding legal issues and logistical challenges raise questions about how it would work in reality.

The deal under which the EU intends to return everyone, including Syrians, who arrives in Greece via smugglers, and resettle Syrian refugees directly from Turkey on a one-for-one basis, has not deterred migrants so far.

According to Greek authorities, 1,662 people had arrived on Greek islands by Monday morning, twice the official count from the day before, Reuters reported.

The Internal and External Ring

BERLIN (Own report) – Within the EU, the mounting pressure to ward off refugees, is intensifying the debate about a possible dismantling of the Schengen system. It is yet unclear, whether Berlin can reach its objective of stopping refugees at the external borders of Greece to be immediately deported to Turkey. Alternately, attempts are being made to turn Macedonia into a buffer state against refugees, while threatening Greece’s exclusion from the Schengen system. The establishment of a “Mini-Schengen” is being considered as an emergency solution. Even while officially continuing to reject such a “Mini-Schengen,” the German government is already involved in its planning, which the Netherlands is officially directing. Any option beyond effectively sealing off Greece’s external borders, i.e. abandoning part of the Schengen-system, would be a first retreat – with unforeseeable consequences. According to observers, this could seriously weaken the EU.