Juncker @en – European Affairs Magazine

PM Boyko Borisov: Much more could be done for businesses under the Juncker plan

12 Maggio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Much more could be done for businesses under the Juncker plan, said Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov during a conference on the topic of “Results and good practices from the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI, Juncker plan)”.According to him, Bulgaria had the rare chance, with the EU Council Presidency and the support of Juncker, to make it even easier for businesses and make it more flexible. “Next year, we will surpass 4.5-6%. From September 1, we will fulfil our commitment to increase the wages of Bulgarian teachers. We must focus on two things – education, that is the most important in order for us to be competitive. The second is the connectivity of the Balkans, of the regions”.

Juncker at Donald Trump’s support for the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union

31 Marzo 2017 BreakingNews @en di

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hit back at Donald Trump’s support for the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, saying that he would champion American states that wanted to secede from the union. “The newly elected U.S. president was happy that Brexit was taking place and was asking other countries to do the same”, Juncker told delegates from his pan-EU Christian Democrat group in Malta. “If he goes on like that, I’m going to promote the independence of Ohio and the exit of Texas”.

Cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union; President Ilham Aliyev meets Jean Claude Juncker in Brussels

8 Febbraio 2017 BreakingNews @en di

On Monday,president of the Republic of Azerbaijan IlhamAliyev has met with President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker in Brussels. Satisfaction in the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union, confidence in further development of relations were expressed at the meeting. It was emphasized that the work continued on a new document on cooperation and partnership between Azerbaijan and the European Union, after the signing of which relations in all spheres would be further strengthened and expanded. Azerbaijan’s cooperation in the field of dialogue among civilizations and cultures with the countries of the world, including with the European Union was highly assessed during the meeting.

Migrants and borders: Slovenia and Croatia face Hungary’s fence effects

23 Ottobre 2015 EUROPA di

The endless floyd of desperate migrants keeps the Balcan countries in permanent emergency state. Slovenia and Croatia are facing problematics while Orban’s Hungary had it’s border blocked up by that fence.

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More than 12,000 migrants have crossed into Slovenia in the past 24 hours and thousands more are expected, prompting authorities to ask the rest of the European Union for help dealing with the flood of people.
EU officials said Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland offered to send police reinforcements.

“We are standing by Slovenia in these difficult moments, Slovenia is not alone,” European migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said after meeting Gyorkos Znidar. The EU executive later said Slovenia had formally requested tents, blankets and other supplies under the bloc’s disaster relief programmed.
Croatia also decided on Thursday to seek international help, the news agency Hina reported. The government in Zagreb said it would ask for blankets, winter tents, beds and containers. Since mid-September, 217,000 refugees have entered Croatia

Slovenia’s Interior Ministry said Croat police were dumping thousands of undocumented people on its border “without control” and were ignoring telephoned Slovene requests to contain the surge.
On Tuesday morning, a train carrying more than 1,000 people from the Croatian town of Tovarnik and some 20 buses of full of refugees from the Opatovac refugee camp were headed toward the Slovenian border.

Migrants began streaming into Slovenia last Friday, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia. Before then, they were heading for Hungary – a member of Europe’s Schengen zone of visa-free travel – and then north and west to Austria and Germany. Sealing the border diverted them to Slovenia, which is also a member of the Schengen zone.
The daily cost of handling migrants was costing the former Yugoslav republic €770,000 Gyorkos Znidar said.

The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called an extraordinary meeting of several European leaders for Sunday, 25th. Juncker has invited the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

Not a single migrant has entered Hungary from Croatia since the border was closed with a fence protected by razor wire, soldiers and police patrols.

Orban said “Hungary’s border fence had been meant to turn migrants back from Europe, not divert them along a different path to Germany, and that he had asked Hungary’s Balkan neighbors to help send the migrants back”.
“The right thing to do is not to ensure their passage into Europe but to take them back to the refugee camps they started out from,” he said. “The further they come from their troubled countries, the more difficult it will be for them to return. Therefore these people must remain and humane conditions must be created for them in those places”.

While EU’s efforts seem to be not-sufficiently able to take control of the situation created during Balcan borders, Orban spaces his far-right way of thinking not considering the fact that what’s happening with millennial migrants is much more than a “migrant crisis”: it’s an anthropological change, a continuum circle of people that keeps on walking countries, borders while trying to make their lifes better and safer.

A price of late globalization, maybe; a war and destabilization of the Middle East’s bill to be payed also by occidental countries, indeed.

Sabiena Stefanaj

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Eu, immigration: mirage of a common plan

15 Settembre 2015 Europe di

After the building of the wall on the border with Serbia, the new law on illegal immigration has kicked off in Hungary. EU States have rejected Juncker’s plan on redistribution. Germany is the first European country for asylum seekers in 2015: more efficient identification centers in Italy, Greece and Hungary are necessary.

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Arrest and imprisonment up to three years for anyone who arrives in Hungary and has not application for asylum. Since midnight on 15 September 2015 the new law on illegal immigration, launched by Orban government, has entered into forced. It’s also closed the last stretch of wall bordering Serbia. Now there are only two official entrances. On Monday Hungary has observed a record number of entries: 9380 migrants, then blocked by the Hungarian police. Already arrested 16 people, Syrian and Afghan, passed after 12 a.m.

Meanwhile, in the summit in Brussels 14 September, it has been temporarily rejected the increase up to 120,000 migrants between the EU countries, which remains at 40,000. Ministers of Internal Affairs have approved the plan written in early summer, 16 thousand or 24 thousand from Italy and Greece (excluding Hungary). While there was consensus on the launch of the second phase of the mission EuNAVfor Med: European ships transiting the Mediterranean will can stop, seize and destroy boats, having as a priority the protection of human life.

Eastern Europe Countries, especially Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, have closed down the EU Commission President Juncker’s redistribution proposal. Also States, which are in favor of welcoming refugees, have chosen to increase controls on their borders like France and Germany, or Austria, which has sent army on the border with Hungary: “Temporary controls do not mean close the borders – said Chancellor Merkel -. We will continue to accept refugees in Germany, provided that there is an orderly process. ” After internal criticism as a result of 60,000 refugees arrived in Bavaria in the last days, German Prime Minister has done a half step back.

But this words are actually destined to Italy, Greece and Hungary because the systematization of the control of migrants who arrive in Europe is the real critical point. The opening to asylum seekers of the German government in early September passes by the creation of hot spots centers on European borders. The identification of those arriving is crucial. Moreover, refugees have not interest to remain in Italy, Greece and Hungary: their goal is to register directly in Germany, Sweden and Norway because, according to Dublin Regulation, an asylum seeker can stay only in the State where the request was made. But a possible exception to this agreement, as leaked by Brussels, could break through.

Numbers are clear. Arrivals recorded amounted to more than 180000 for Greece, about 170000 for Hungary and 110000 and Italy. But the ranking of total asylum applications in the Q1 of 2015 is very different: Germany, 73120; Hungary, 32810; Italy 15250; Greece (down the list) 2615. Figures about Syrians are even more in opposing trend, except for Hungary, compared to arrivals. From 1 January to 31 August 2015, Germany, 30120; Hungary; 10855; Sweden 7250; Greece (penultimate), 1275; Italy, 155.

So migratory route is clear. And it’s evident as much the anti-immigration policies of Orban government are self-destructive and are overloading the same Hungary, which is the first Eu country has reached 302 refugees per capita in 2015.

The need for identification on the sea and land borders of the European Union is essential. Germany wants to give chances to Syrians because they are graduates, professionals and skilled workers. But it’s also true that Italy and Greece have to make efficient their hot spot to share people with other member states . But despite the refugee emergency, there’s still not an Eu plan.
Giacomo Pratali

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