Prospects of EU solution to the migration situation

PM Orbán travelled to Brussels on Thursday to discuss migration issues with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. This will be followed by a Visegrad 4 summit in Prague. Analysts wonder if there is hope for an EU solution to the migration crisis.

Hungary may criminalize illegal border crossing and deploy border patrols, but it cannot resolve the migration crisis without an EU-level arrangement, György Sebes writes in Népszava. In the absence of a joint EU action plan, Hungary is likely to be subject to further harsh criticism as the government employs increasingly drastic measures  to stop the flow of migrants, the left-wing pundit predicts.

In a separate report, commenting on the Prime Minister’s opinion piece in Thursday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Népszava suspects that PM Orbán is not seeking EU-wide cooperation on migration, but wants to continue his war against what he sees as EU’s pro-immigration policies. In his article, PM Orbán argued that in order to protect free movement within the EU and European values, immigration flows need to be stopped. Népszava contends that in light of recent statements by the PM and other government politicians, it is unlikely that the Hungarian leader would agree with any EU-wide solutions including migrant quotas.

Magyar Hírlap’s Gyula T. Máté thinks that this weeks’ events have shown that Western European countries are not interested in helping Hungary resolve the migration crisis. They blame Hungary for not letting in migrants, but at the same time they demand that asylum seekers stay within Hungary, the conservative columnist remarks. “Neither Brussels, nor Washington will ever be bothered by the challenges Hungary faces,” Máté concludes.

In Magyar Idők, Attila Csák does not expect the EU to come up with meaningful suggestions to tackle the challenges posed by migration. The pro-government pundit describes the quota system proposed earlier by Brussels as a window dressing stunt. The mandatory redistribution of 60,000 refugees would not have solved anything, since in Hungary alone, more than 160,000 undocumented migrants have applied for asylum this year, Csák notes.

On Index, András Iván suspects that the odds of an agreement on migrant quotas in the EU are slim. There are several EU member states that oppose Germany’s, Italy’s and France‘s plans for the redistribution of refugees among EU member states, Iván recalls. Moreover, even if those in favour manage to push it through, the quota system couldn’t be finalized and implemented by the end of this year, and would thus come too late anyway to resolve the imminent migration crisis, Iván contends.

Tags: EU, European Commission, migration