In 2015 more than a million refugees crossed borders with the aim of reaching the European Union. Many member states are experiencing immense difficulties managing the requests for humanitarian aid, asylum and integration that have ensued. If these difficulties are not managed properly, social cohesion and political stability could be gravely threatened. A great many European commentators have drawn urgent attention to this situation, since, without European solidarity and concerted action, the current crisis and its consequences might easily assume much larger dimensions.
Jean-François Drevet argues strongly along these lines and stresses, in this column, the incoherence of European migration and asylum policy and the absence of a strategy in this area, as attested dramatically by the aberrant agreement on migrants struck with Turkey in March. Amid tactical errors, precipitate and inappropriate reactions and improper horse-trading with Ankara, the European Union is failing to cope with these matters and is endangering an asylum law whose very foundations are teetering under the growing weight of refugee flows. How much longer can this situation persist?
