Juncker demands ‘immediate action’ on migration

In his State of the Union speech, Juncker unveils new proposals to deal with the refugee crisis.

The European Commission will introduce a new proposal for legal migration into the EU in 2016, Jean-Claude Juncker announced Wednesday, in one of several measures he offered to deal with the refugee crisis.

Juncker, in his State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, said the Commission would urge EU member states to act quickly on its proposal for the emergency relocation of a total of 160,000 refugees currently in Italy, Greece and Hungary. EU interior ministers will consider the proposal at a special meeting on September 14.

“We now need immediate action,” Juncker said. “We cannot leave Italy, Greece and Hungary to fare alone. Just as we would not leave any other EU member state alone. For if it is Syria and Libya people are fleeing from today, it could just as easily be Ukraine tomorrow.”

Juncker said a broader new proposal on migration was needed because existing “legal channels” were not sufficient to address the current refugee crisis.

If there are “more, safe and controlled roads opened to Europe, we can manage migration better and make the illegal work of human traffickers less attractive,” Juncker said. Over time, he added, “migration must change from a problem to be tackled to a well-managed resource.”

“This requires a strong effort in European solidarity,” Juncker said. “Before the summer, we did not receive the backing from member states I had hoped for. But I see that the mood is turning. And I believe it is high time for this.”

Juncker also addressed the migration issue in the context of climate change, which he called “one the root causes of a new migration phenomenon. Climate refugees will become a new challenge – if we do not act swiftly.”

Yet, a new specific measure on this front “probably is not on the top of the list” of EU priorities, given the amount of problems on migration the Commission is already facing, said Elizabeth Collett of Migration Policy Institute Europe, a think tank.

Immediately after the State of the Union address, the European Parliament began a debate on the Commission’s Migration Agenda, which was introduced in May to address the crisis.

Juncker’s team emphasized the need for immediate action when EU interior ministers meet next week.

“What we do next Monday is closely linked to the destiny of the European Union,” said Commission first vice president Frans Timmermans, in opening the debate. 

The commissioner in charge of migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that “if there was ever a moment where we would absolutely need an EU approach for migration, now is that moment.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini added: “Our external credibility largely depends on our coherence and consistency,” stressing that Europe needs an external as well internal response to the current humanitarian crisis.

After the debate MEPs backed temporary emergency rules to relocate an initial total of 40,000 asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece to other EU member states over two years — the most controversial part of the Commission’s migration agenda from May. Several MEPs also welcomed Juncker’s new proposals for more permanent solutions.

“We have a humanitarian crisis and we need to act on it now,” said MEP Ska Keller of the Green group. “Relocating 40,000 refugees is just the start. Let this measure be the start of a rights-based, a fair and a common asylum policy, in solidarity with all member states and in solidarity with the refugees.”

In his speech Juncker referred to moments in European history when refugees were fleeing from countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Spain. “We Europeans should remember that Europe is a continent where nearly everyone at some point has been a refugee,” he said, adding that governments should not take people’s religion into account when offering a safe haven.

The comment comes after officials in Slovakia and Poland suggested that they would accept only Christian refugees.

After Juncker’s speech, the Commission released more details about its migration plans ahead of the September 14 ministerial meeting. It confirmed that the new proposal would call for the relocation of an additional 120,000 refugees across Europe. It also confirmed that the countries choosing not to take part in the new mandatory scheme would have an opt-out option called the “temporary solidarity clause.”

If, “for justified and objective reasons such as a natural disaster,” a member state cannot temporarily participate in a relocation decision, it would have to make a financial contribution to the EU budget of an amount of 0.002 percent of its GDP.

Protesting EU farmers get €500 million in aid

Protesters say agricultural product prices are too low for them to make a living.

Angry farmers brought central Brussels to a fiery standstill Monday and secured €500 million of assistance from the European Commission to help them cope with plummeting prices for diary and meat, in part the result of a Russian embargo against EU food.

As EU agriculture ministers held an emergency meeting to the backdrop of tractor horns and burning tires, the Commission said the funds were aimed at tackling farmers’ cash-flow difficulties, stabilizing markets and improving the supply chain.

The new measures include targeted aid for all 28 member states, better storage to reduce market supply, more promotional trips to third countries in search of new markets, and the ability for member states to advance aid to farmers more quickly.

“This package will allow for €500 million of EU funds to be used for the benefit of farmers immediately,” European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said in a statement. “This response demonstrates that the Commission takes its responsibility towards farmers very seriously and is prepared to back it up with the appropriate funds.”

Outside the meeting, farmers from member countries including Poland, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands protested a hodgepodge of grievances, but above all low prices which many said make it impossible to earn a living.

One tractor carried a hangman doll labelled “Hogan,” for the EU’s farm commissioner, Phil Hogan. Amid circling helicopters, acrid smoke and the boom of fireworks, farmers dug into barbecues. Some ate apples while others hurled them at riot police in gas masks, along with eggs and milk cartons. At one point police responded with a few blasts of water canon.

“I also had a spray of democracy,” said MEP Bronis Ropė, smiling among the crowd in a Lithuanian scarf, open-necked shirt and damp suit. “People simply can’t survive under current milk prices, so that’s why people came here, asking the Commission for support and regulation of milk prices.”

One of Ropė’s advisors, Arunas Grazulis, said the Lithuanian milk sector has been hit especially hard by the Russian embargo, depriving it of what had been its biggest export market.

“Lithuanian diary producers are offered the lowest prices — about nine to eleven euro cents per litre,” Grazulis said. “That’s less than half what Germans are offered.”

Listen: Belgian farmers explain why they join the protests (in French):

Hogan’s haters

Benoit, a 20-year-old member of the Belgian Young Farmers Association, traveled by tractor from Soignies, about 40 kilometers south-west of Brussels, to join the protest.

“Now they buy the milk cheaper than what it costs us to produce. So we can’t cover our costs for the cows or anything, so we’re protesting,” he said. “It’s impossible to live. There are already lots of farmers who have stopped — if it continues like this, every day people will stop and go bankrupt.”

Martina Broadback from the German Federal Dairy Farmers Association was attending her fifth protest. Her family has scaled up its operation from 43 cows in 1983 to 200 now but still can’t earn a living, she said.

“In Germany they say the market will regulate everything but that doesn’t work,” she said. “In the end there will be a few very big farms with 1,000 or 2,000 cows, and all the others will go.”

Watch: an impression of the protests in Brussels:
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Cynthia Kroet and Ginger Hervey contributed to this story.