Merkel: 'Obsolete' EU asylum rules need to change

  • 08/10/2015
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande (Reuters)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande (Reuters)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe needs to rewrite its "obsolete" asylum rules to tackle the migrant crisis, as European warships went into action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean.

Merkel made the call in a speech with French President Francois Hollande to the European Parliament – the first such joint address since the fall of the Berlin Wall – in which they urged the increasingly divided EU to unite to tackle a wave of problems including migration and the war in Syria.

"Let's be frank. The Dublin process, in its current form, is obsolete," Merkel said.

The process, which forces frontline states like Italy and Greece to process and welcome most migrants, "started from good intentions... but the challenges raised at our borders are from now on untenable," Merkel said.

"I appeal for a new procedure" to redistribute asylum seekers "fairly" throughout the 28-nation bloc, the chancellor said.

"It is exactly now that we need more Europe. We need courage and cohesion, which Europe has always shown when it was necessary."

Germany is Europe's top destination for people fleeing war and misery in the continent's greatest migrant influx since World War II and expects between 800,000 and one million newcomers this year alone.

German authorities said on Wednesday (local time) they had registered around 577,000 asylum seekers in the first nine months of the year, a third of whom claim to be Syrian.

In a high-profile talk show appearance later on Wednesday, Merkel defended her welcoming stance towards the refugees and said she was proud of the "friendly face" Germany had shown the world.

But she admitted that coping with the challenges posed by the influx of asylum seekers will be "difficult".

"Perhaps the most difficult since reunification," Merkel said on ARD television, referring to the unification of East and West Germany 25 years ago.

Hollande warned of the risk of returning to national frontiers, the dismantling of common policies and the abandoning of the euro.

"We need not less Europe but more Europe. Europe must affirm itself otherwise we will see the end of Europe, our demise," Hollande told lawmakers.

The French leader meanwhile admitted that the EU had reacted too slowly to the turmoil on its borders since the Arab Spring in 2011, which had produced the huge wave of refugees seeking a better life in Europe.

"I acknowledge that Europe was slow in understanding that tragedy in the Middle East or Africa could not but have consequences for Europe itself," he said.

Hollande also gave a dire warning of a regional conflagration in the Middle East that could affect Europe if the world fails to stop the slaughter in Syria, where an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 has spiralled into all-out civil war.

Meanwhile the EU formally launched "Operation Sophia" which gives European naval vessels in international waters off Libya the power to stop, board, seize and destroy people traffickers' boats.

Around 3000 people have died making the perilous crossing over the Mediterranean to Europe this year.

The first phase of the operation, which involved monitoring trafficker networks and rescuing refugees from rickety boats, has been running since June.

An Italian aircraft carrier, a French frigate and one British, one Spanish and two German ships are all involved in the mission, which follows in the footsteps of EU anti-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa.

At least three other vessels supplied by the Belgian, British and Slovenian navies are expected to arrive in the area at the end of October to complete the force, which also include four aircraft and 1318 personnel.

AFP