Germany which likes to see itself as the no. 1 EU policy maker and guiding light now feels betrayed by its exasperating little brother, the Republic of Austria.
Austria officially opted out of Germany's open door immigration policy following a summit yesterday with Balkan conveyor belt countries like Slovenia and Macedonia; a meeting to which Germany and Greece were tellingly not invited. A decision was made. The conveyor belt has been stopped.
Germany is a major industrial country with an alarmingly low birthrate. Where is the factory fodder to come from? Answer: through the open door. Hence the flood of young virile men. Hence the growing problems. Hence the Geneva Convention and the Dublin Accords, rules designed to deal with refugees in an orderly and prescribed manner, were thrown into the trash can.
The EU's latest mastermind, Jean Claud Junker (Luxembourg - Europe's richest country and tax haven) has weighed in with veiled threats on the side of D-EU-TSCHLAND. What should Austria, now between a rock and a hard place, and faced with almost overwhelming pressure to get back on the German track do? Answer: Maintain the new status quo. Sometimes doing nothing is the best option. Austria must remain strong and firm and be prepared to call the Merkel-Junker bluff.
The refugee crisis is a wake up call for the EU which is now splintering into four or five distinct groups. If the EU is to hold together then Germany must learn listen and consider carefully the opinions of other EU countries and begin to co-operate with them rather than trying to dictate to them.
If the Germans decide to import another million people it would be sensible to discuss the logistics before throwing open the door and setting out the welcome mat. They might consider using some of their huge cruise liners* to bring their immigrants from wherever they happen to be directly to the docks of Hamburg for example. In this way Greece, Italy, Austria, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and the other affected countries would be better able to cope, and the EU and the Schengen Zone might just hold together.
*Dear Mrs Merkel, Why not start such an initiative today? Yes, this very day. Send out your fleet of refugee ships to Greece and take the refugees directly to Germany. It's a simple thing to do, and you will gain respect from the global community. Even from Austria. Think about those scenes of great delight when your first ocean liner arrives in Hamburg, as opposed to yet more pictures of bewildered children and parents in endless queues behind chain link and barbed wire fences.
Gwil, the cruise liner is a brilliant idea! If Germany is the destination, get the refugees there as speedily and safely as possible. Maybe they could just pick them up in Turkey? (prob. not) The whole thing is such a mess and Germany does seem to be calling the shots. The media here give the impression that Austria and the Balkan countries are mean and other-phobic in contrast to Germany, which is generous and open-minded. No reports deal well with the economic or demographic facts that are influencing decisions to accept or reject new citizens.
ReplyDeleteThank you Shawn. The people who control the media don't reflect public opinion, they reflect Merkel's opinion. This was told by the boss of ZDF the German mainstream tv channel, their equivalent of the BBC or CNN, who just retired and let the cat out of the bag.
DeleteThis idea of the cruise liner was in the press here some weeks back. The EU is making the migrant situation worse than if each country made its own decision. It is time for one big political break up of the EU.
ReplyDeleteYesterday a German politician said on the radio that they are expecting another 3.6 million to come between 2016 and 2020. I think that's an underestimate. It's time for d-eu-tech land to get their act together and send the ships instead of creating chaos and trying to make Greece the Lebanon of Europe, which how Greeks see it. They are currently exporting arms to Algeria. What for? So that Holland can export arms to neighboring Morocco.
DeleteJoe Public with his head in the clouds sees very little of the hidden agendas.
Obviously I mean Germany is exporting military hardware to Algeria.
DeleteGermany doesn't know whereabouts of 130,000 asylum seekers. Source: BBC News.
ReplyDelete