Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls on Sunday amidst feuding between European neighbours as to who should shelter hundreds of thousands of refugees has raised speculation that the Schengen system of open borders is under threat.
Austria followed Germany’s lead on Monday, Slovakia reintroduced passport checks at its border with Hungary, and the Czech Republic is considering doing so too, says David Charter in The Times. Even Finland is stepping up controls on its border with Sweden.
While European Union (EU) members can suspend Schengen for a limited period (it has happened six times since 2013, notes Jack Sommers in The Huffington Post), Germany’s “abrupt decision” came as a “shock”, says Ian Traynor in The Guardian. As the EU’s biggest nation, straddling its geographical centre and bordering nine countries, Germany is a “lynchpin” of Schengen. Without Germany, it could collapse.
Most EU leaders agree the problem lies more with the bloc’s external borders and the Dublin rule, which requires asylum seekers to be processed in the first country they reach, says Alastair Macdonald on Reuters.
At heart, agrees Jim Brunsden in the Financial Times, this crisis is about a “lack of political will to share responsibility”. Countries on the EU’s southern border, notably Greece, Italy and Malta, have long complained of a “lack of solidarity” from other members on this issue.
As for Germany’s move to suspend the Dublin rule and open its arms to Syrian refugees in recent weeks – Germany stopped sending people back to Greece years ago because border management there is “in tatters”.
Reintroducing border controls to ensure safe, orderly management of refugees is “logical”, says David McAllister in The Daily Telegraph. “Germany is neither able nor willing to solve the refugee crisis” alone.
The EU must agree on a joint migration and asylum policy and members must support countries on the frontline, where refugees first set foot, with staff and technical assistance. There should also be “one binding and permanent mechanism that ensures the fair sharing of responsibility to host” these people.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has set out a plan for refugee quotas, but it has been met with “implacable opposition” from EU states, including Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, says Luke Harding in The Guardian.
Austria’s chancellor, Werner Faymann, has said that Austria and Germany, both net contributors to the EU budget, would consider sanctions against countries refusing to share the burden, perhaps by axing some EU structural funds, which particularly help east European states.
A coherent response is needed – but Europe’s response so far has been “anything but”, says Fortune’s Geoffrey Smith. So far its peoples and governments have reacted in “wildly differing ways”.
This is a battle for Europe’s soul: “how to meet the demands of Christian charity and basic human decency while devising a practical policy for managing the ever-growing numbers straining its famed social safety nets”. It would be foolish to expect it to end soon.