EU holds summit to discuss migrant crisis

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European Union leaders met in a summit Wednesday evening in Brussels to talk about reinforcing surveillance of the frontiers, particularly sea routes into Greece where hundreds of refugees die in the midst of attempts to reach Greek islands.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - Bloomberg Business reported the strain with eastern EU states Hungary and Slovakia might ease if border-management can be successfully discussed.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters, "If the Greeks are not able to defend their own border, we should ask kindly, because Greece is a sovereign country: let the other countries of the European Union defend the Greek border."

Wednesday's summit meeting is the third top-level migration strategy session to take place this year. Other topics on the agenda include expedited deportations, efforts to end Syria's civil war and aid for poorer countries seeing unprecedented amounts of migrants, such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Greece is currently struggling to balance debt and the influx of migrants. Thousands of migrants have traveled through the country and thousands more continue to fight to reach the EU entry point.

National quotas show 160,000 eligible refugees are in need of new home countries but EU President Donald Tusk claimed the United Nations estimated 60 million displaced people have been reported by the end of 2014.

"We need to end this cycle of mutual recriminations and misunderstandings," Tusk said. "The most urgent question we should ask ourselves tonight is how to regain control of our external borders."

In an attempt to restore the EU's consensual modus operandi, Tusk added, "a concrete plan must finally appear in place of the arguments and the chaos we have witnessed."

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed the imposition of quotas was a "fiasco" and said he would turn to the EU supreme court to fight them, but conceded Slovakia will take in some refugees "on a voluntary basis."

The European Commission proposed a list of items to address within the next six months, including the creation of registration centers in Greece and Italy, trust funds to pay for refugee facilities in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and what steps would be necessary to create a European Border and Coast Guard.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been criticized in the past for her open-door attitude toward migrants. She was encouraging at the meeting and said, "Europe can have, and does have, the strength to find reasonable solutions."
Though not everyone was pleased with a forced quota to accept refugees, the main issue was the question of how to bring peace to Syria. Some suggested opening a communications channel to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, but Swedish Prime Minster Stefan Loefven spoke against it, saying "no, Assad is not a partner."
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini agrees with Loefven in that it is better for the UN to spearhead a Syrian peace initiative.

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