Refugees

Instead of bringing regional officials to Brussels, the EU needs to bring Brussels to the regions. Local and regional bodies need to debate EU issues at home. Heather Grabbe and Stefan Lehne propose a solution to narrow the distance between the EU and the individual.

To avoid further catastrophes and deaths in the Mediterranean we need a radical shift in the priorities of EU asylum policies. Increasing the budget of the “Triton” operation of the EU border surveillance agency FRONTEX and doing another minute of silence is not enough!

There is nothing new about refugees fleeing from war. In the first years of World War I, more than 50,000 people arrived in Lesbos from the nearby shores of what is now Turkey. At the end of the war many of these refugees returned to Asia Minor (the Anatolian peninsula). But not much later the Greco-Turkish War and the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 sent more than a million refugees to Greece.

At the southern border of “Fortress Europe”, the Mediterranean has turned into a graveyard. The current migrant crisis in Europe is about more than a risk to the EU’s reputation. It strikes at the core of the EU’s founding values. A continuation of its half-hearted response to the migration crisis is out of question.

Many inhabitants of the Maghreb have no other choice than to leave their homes, and start a new life abroad.

In light of the wave of populism continuing to gain ground, many European leaders are adopting the intolerant and scapegoating rhetoric of the far right. More than ever, social alliances against the extreme right are needed in order to counteract this trend and to promote the values of a Europe of solidarity.

It was not until the late 2000s that environmental migration and displacement stepped into climate change negotiations. Now that they have however, are the EU and UN doing enough to deal with this growing issue? In the run up to the Paris 2015 negotiations, Esmeralda Colombo explores the debate.

Both multicultural and assimilationist models of integration have difficulties, but the intercultural approach could offer a way to move beyond concepts of majority and minority, host society and newcomers, and become a new model for Europe.

Using examples from her own home, Corfu, Vera Koronaki describes the reasons why we need solidarity, both in Europe as well as beyond, and the steps that we can take to achieve it.