A historic rescue plan for economies left shattered by the coronavirus epidemic was hailed by French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday as “the most important moment in the life of our Europe since the creation of the euro”.

The deal is a special victory for Macron, who came to office in 2017 committed to strengthening the European Union but has struggled to deliver.

“This is the most important moment in the life of our Europe since the creation of the euro,” in 2002, Macron said, adding that France itself would receive 40 billion euros.

The 750-billion-euro ($858-billion) deal was sealed in the early hours of Tuesday after intense negotiations that saw threats of walkouts, vetoes, and fierce opposition from the Netherlands and Austria.

“These were, of course, difficult negotiations in very difficult times for all Europeans,” said EU Council chief Charles Michel, whose job was to guide the tortuous talks over more than 90 hours.

Germany and France strongly backed the package, which enables joint borrowing by the 27 members of the bloc to help virus-hit countries, particularly Spain and Italy.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe had shown itself equal to “the greatest crisis” in EU history, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed “a Marshall Plan for Europe” that would boost his country’s economy by 140 billion euros over the next six years.

How will the debt be repaid?

However, there was criticism from MEPs, who broadly welcomed the deal but questioned the detail.

“The EU is now allowed to borrow funds but there is no certainty on how the debt will be repaid,” said a group of six MEPs who took part in the negotiations.

And teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg questioned whether the compromises were too great.

“As expected the #EUCO resulted in some nice words, some vague distant incomplete climate targets nearly impossible to track and a complete denial of the climate emergency,” she tweeted.

The initial call for solidarity was met with the fierce opposition from the “Frugals”, a group of northern nations led by the Netherlands that argued the package was unnecessary.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had warned before the talks against the EU becoming a “transfer union” with a permanent north-south movement of wealth.

Afterward, he defended himself from accusations that he had accepted precisely what he had sought to avoid.

“This is a one-off, there is a clear necessity for this given the excessive situation,” he told reporters.

The frugals were also apprehensive about sending money to southern countries that they see as too lax with public spending.

To meet their concerns, payouts from the package will come with important strings attached – a hard pill to swallow for Rome and Madrid who resisted anything resembling the harsh bailouts imposed on Greece, Portugal, or Ireland during the debt crisis.

The frugals were also enticed with heavy rebates on their EU contributions.

‘Rule of law’

The recovery package will complement the unprecedented monetary stimulus at the European Central Bank, which has largely succeeded in reassuring the financial markets despite a catastrophic recession in Europe.

ECB chief Christine Lagarde welcomed the accord, saying it “shows that when most needed, the EU steps up and comes together to help the people of Europe”.

Overall, the deal will dole out €390 billion in the form of grants to pandemic-hit countries.

That was lower than an original €500 billion proposal made by France and Germany. Another €360 billion will be disbursed in loans.

Spending must be devoted to policies seen as compatible with European priorities, including politically difficult economic reforms as well as the environment.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will be in charge of distributing the funds, with the 27 member states able to turn down a spending plan if a weighted majority of them decide to intervene.

The rescue package was agreed along with the EU’s long-term budget, bringing the agreed spending to €1.8 trillion through 2027.

The package now requires more technical negotiations among member states as well as ratification by the European Parliament, which will begin its scrutiny of the deal on Thursday.

Source: https://www.france24.com/en/20200721-eu-rescue-deal-the-most-important-moment-in-the-life-of-our-europe-says-macron

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(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed a united front with Italy’s Giuseppe Conte days ahead of a crucial European Union summit, warning that EU leaders need to deliver a “massive” response to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The German leader’s common line with the Italian prime minister was a sales pitch in favor of a proposed 750 billion-euro ($853 billion) recovery plan, which has met with resistance from a handful of member states concerned by the cost.

“It has to be something special — and it can’t be dwarfed” in size by horse-trading compromises, Merkel told reporters outside Berlin alongside Conte. “The task is a huge one, so the response also has to be a big one.”

EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Friday for the first time since the pandemic swept the continent. On the table is a recovery fund backed by Germany and France intended as a show of solidarity to nations hit hardest by the illness, such as Italy and Spain.

Italy, which has tallied almost 35,000 deaths from the virus, stands to become the biggest beneficiary of the EU package. Conte said his government is willing to accept tighter criteria for the grants and loans package, a signal to nations such as the Netherlands, which have demanded a set of conditions attached to any funding.

“The European Council must take a decision that is coherent with the level of ambition of the commission and Franco-German proposals,” Conte said. “We must say ‘yes’ immediately to an instrument.”

Merkel hosted the Italian premier at the government guest house, an 18th-century baroque palace in Meseberg, an hour’s drive north of Berlin. She’ll host the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, at the chancellery on Tuesday.

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/merkel-and-conte-show-common-front-on-massive-eu-recovery-fund-1.1464689

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Angela Merkel has said there is still every chance of a Brexit deal being struck as British negotiators headed to Brussels for further talks.

“We still have every chance of getting an orderly (Brexit) and the German government will do everything it can to make that possible – right up to the last day. But I also say we are prepared for a disorderly Brexit,” Mrs. Merkel told the Bundestag.

But Pedro Sanchez, the acting prime minister of Spain, said that the EU would offer no further concessions to the UK, which was headed for a no-deal Brexit.

David Frost, the top UK Brexit official, is traveling to Brussels on Wednesday for talks about the political declaration with EU officials. The declaration sets out the terms of the negotiations on the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU.

Mrs. Merkel hinted that Brussels would insist on level playing field guarantees as part of any agreement. The commitments to uphold EU standards on tax, state aid, and the environment – designed to keep the UK from gaining a competitive advantage over the EU – were accepted by Theresa May.

David Frost and UK ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow arrives in Brussels for a technical meeting last week CREDIT: FRANCISCO SECO/AP

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The German Interior Ministry said it had reached an agreement with Greece on Friday that will see it send back certain asylum seekers.

Germany is seeking to strike a number of deals with southern European countries that would allow the federal government to return migrants who have already lodged an asylum request in another country.

What does the German-Greek compromise look like?

• Athens will agree to take back all asylum-seekers who initially applied in Greece but ultimately moved to Germany by passing through the German-Austrian border.
• It remains unclear what Greece will receive in return. However, in a similar deal with Spain, Berlin pledged to help curb the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Morocco.
• The deal is unlikely to affect many refugees. According to the German Interior Ministry, only 150 migrants who applied for asylum elsewhere have entered Germany through Austria since mid-June.

Fleeing war and poverty

In late 2014, with the war in Syria approaching its fourth year and Islamic State making gains in the north of the country, the exodus of Syrians intensified. At the same time, others were fleeing violence and poverty in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Niger and Kosovo.

Seeking refuge over the border

Vast numbers of Syrian refugees had been gathering in border-town camps in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan since 2011. By 2015, with the camps full to bursting and residents often unable to find work or educate their children, more and more people decided to seek asylum further afield.

A long journey on foot

In 2015 an estimated 1.5 million people made their way on foot from Greece towards western Europe via the “Balkan route”. The Schengen Agreement, which allows passport-free travel within much of the EU, was called into question as refugees headed towards the wealthier European nations.

Desperate sea crossings

Tens of thousands of refugees were also attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean on overcrowded boats. In April 2015, 800 people of various nationalities drowned when a boat traveling from Libya capsized off the Italian coast. This was to be just one of many similar tragedies – by the end of the year, nearly 4,000 refugees were reported to have died attempting the crossing.

Pressure on the borders

Countries along the EU’s external border struggled to cope with the sheer number of arrivals. Fences were erected in Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia and Austria. Asylum laws were tightened and several Schengen area countries introduced temporary border controls.

Closing the open door

Critics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open-door” refugee policy claimed it had made the situation worse by encouraging more people to embark on the dangerous journey to Europe. By September 2016, Germany had also introduced temporary checks on its border with Austria.

Striking a deal with Turkey

In early 2016, the EU and Turkey signed an agreement under which refugees arriving in Greece could be sent back to Turkey. The deal has been criticized by human rights groups and came under new strain following a vote by the European Parliament in November to freeze talks on Turkey’s potential accession to the EU.

No end in sight

With anti-immigration sentiment in Europe growing, governments are still struggling to reach a consensus on how to handle the continuing refugee crisis. Attempts to introduce quotas for the distribution of refugees among EU member states have largely failed. Conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere show no signs coming to an end, and the death toll from refugee sea crossings is on the rise.

Author: Rachel Stewart

Remnants of a government crisis: Germany’s spate of bilateral migrant deals with southern European states come in the wake of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s compromise with her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, which ended a week-long disputed that threatened to split the ruling coalition. Seehofer initially threatened to shut Germany’s southern border to halt the flow of migrants into the country before allowing Merkel to attempt to strike her own deals with the Mediterranean states.

Read more: Will Italy’s refugee stance bring down the EU?

Deal with Italy still some way away: Berlin is still seeking to reach a similar compromise with Italy. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry has said negotiations are well advanced, although Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the anti-migrant League party, could be unwilling to compromise. Merkel indicated last week she would be willing to travel to Italy to negotiate herself if necessary.

dm/kms (dpa, AFP, KNA)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-and-greece-seal-migrant-return-deal/a-45116674

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German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez at a press conference in southern Spain. Photograph: A Carrasco Ragel/EPA

Chancellor Angela Merkel has returned from her summer holiday, picking up where she left off: demanding far-reaching reform of the EU’s so-called Dublin migration system, which she described as “dysfunctional”.

She was speaking on a weekend visit to southern Spain, after Madrid announced it would take back within 48 hours migrants registered in its system detained on the German-Austrian border.

With Berlin still seeking similar agreements with Athens and Rome, Dr Merkel thanked the new Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, with a promise to assist his own efforts to tackle growing migration to Spain from Morocco.

That hinged in turn, she said, on a pan-EU agreement for fairer burden-sharing to distribute refugees and others with a right to stay in Europe.

“This is a common challenge for everyone – it can’t depend on the geographic location of a certain country,” said Dr Merkel, acknowledging that EU member states have “not yet found a solution”.

Though just 14km separates north Africa from the outer EU border in Spain, Mr Sánchez warned that a far greater gap exists between Europe and Africa on economics, human rights and political stability.

“The greater the gap the more travesties there will be in our Mediterranean waters,” he said, a nod to 1,500 people who have died so far this year in the Mediterranean Sea.

“Trying to close that gap of inequality must be one of our main goals in the present European Union. ”

Symbolic agreement

The Spanish-German agreement is largely of a symbolic nature: in the last two months, no migrants from Spain have shown up on German borders.

But that could change, given Spain has overtaken Italy and Greece as the number one destination for asylum seekers entering Europe, accounting for about half of 63,000 arrivals logged by the UN refugee agency.

Dr Merkel insisted the bilateral agreement indicated a shared will of Germany and Spain to find “European solutions” to the refugee crisis.

Last month her Bavarian allies, facing an election in October, brought her coalition to the brink with threats of national measures to send back migrants at its border with Austria unless new EU agreements were struck.

The chancellor returned from an all-night EU summit with a political deal to shore up external European borders and create screening centres inside and outside the EU to expedite migrants’ asylum applications.

With pressure growing to present concrete measures, her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, has signaled he will present migrant return agreements this week with Italy and Austria. But both countries have populist parties in power and are cool on accepting additional migrants.

Processing centres

Another huge challenge remains over delivering the promised migrant processing centres in secure areas of northern Africa, given the lack of enthusiasm for such facilities in countries there.

Despite resistance from central European countries such as Poland and Hungary, a European Commission draft document says “long-term solutions” must be found for people in such facilities “who require international protection” – including the prospect of resettlement in Europe.

Some 20 member states including Ireland, have signed up to an existing EU programme, but just 4,300 of the forecast 50,000 people have been resettled.

In the medium term Germany will maintain its pressure for a far-reaching overhaul of the existing Dublin system, which hands responsibility for processing migrants to authorities in the first EU country they enter.

Ahead of next month’s EU summit in Austria, set to be dominated again by the migration crisis, the chancellor warned of the consequences of failure.

“The racist tendencies that we see lamentably in all the member states are something we have to fight against,” she said.

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/merkel-eyes-reform-of-dysfunctional-eu-migration-agreement-1.3593868

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THESSALONIKI, Greece – The Latest on immigration into Europe (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

Spain is setting up a central operational command for migrant management amid a summer surge in arrivals from North Africa, which is placing a strain on public services.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Friday that the unit will coordinate Spain’s response to the thousands of migrants arriving each month.

Sanchez says his government is in talks with Morocco, from where traffickers take the migrants across the Mediterranean, and the migrants’ countries of origin.

The United Nations Migration Agency says in the first five months of this year 8,150 migrants were rescued in Spanish waters. But since the end of May, almost 15,000 have been saved from boats — more than 240 people a day as Spain surpassed Italy as the main EU destination for migrants coming by sea.

___

11:00 a.m.

Greek police say they have arrested eight migrants on suspicion of the murder of a Pakistani man trying to leave the country illegally.

Police said Friday the eight were suspected of involvement in the July 23 stabbing death of a 29-year-old Pakistani man who had been with three compatriots heading toward Greece’s northern border with Macedonia.

The eight — six Afghans and two Pakistanis — allegedly robbed the four near the border, stabbing the 29-year-old in the process. His body was discovered the following day near a railway track.

Hundreds of migrants arrive in Greece each week from nearby Turkey. With routes out of the country officially closed to them, many try to head further into Europe from unguarded parts of Greece’s northern border.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/03/latest-spain-sets-up-migrant-command-center-amid-surge.html

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