Central European countries want a “back-up plan” to block the flow of migrants from Greece in case other steps to fortify the EU’s borders fail, but during a summit in Prague on Monday they didn’t break with a broader EU approach to the issue.
The prime ministers of the Visegrád Group — Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — met with leaders from Macedonia and Bulgaria, a sign of the region’s increasing concern that the EU has lost control of the frontiers of the passport-free Schengen zone.
Their summit statement expressed “full support for measures adopted at the European Union level with the aim of a more effective protection of the external borders.”
But the leaders also called for “an alternative back-up plan” if efforts to keep migrants from leaving Turkey fall short.
Central European countries have generally balked at the EU’s refugee relocation scheme, denouncing any attempt at imposing resettlement quotas.
Hungary is ready to support the creation of “a second line of defense,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the conclusion of Monday’s summit.
Hungary calls the shots
Orbán has been the driving force in crafting a tough regional response to the migration crisis. Hungary last year saw hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers passing through on their way to wealthier EU countries like Austria and especially Germany. Orbán stemmed that flow by building fences along Hungary’s borders, and migrants are now moving through Slovenia.
Earlier Monday, Orbán spoke in Hungary’s parliament, denouncing Europe’s “weak” response to the crisis and insisting that building a border fence had worked “to protect the country and fend off terrorist attacks.”
The Czechs have the best relations with Germany of all four Visegrád countries, and worked to make sure the summit declaration didn’t alienate Berlin.
Central European countries have generally balked at the EU’s refugee relocation scheme, denouncing any attempt at imposing resettlement quotas. Opinion polls show very little support for accepting migrants across the region.
However, the Visegrád countries also want to ensure that Schengen does not collapse, as the free movement of people and goods has been an enormous boost to their economies.
Germany is taking the lead in trying to save the zone and keep Greece from being suspended by trying to get Turkey to slow the flood of people crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece. It also wants Athens to set up processing centers to identify and fingerprint migrants instead of simply allowing them to continue on to northern Europe. EU countries have given Greece three months to fix its borders.
But if that doesn’t work, then the Visegrád countries want a way to halt the flow.
“If Turkey fails to manage the regulation of migration, the illegal economic migration may be stopped on the borders of Macedonia and Bulgaria,” Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, told the CTK news agency.
Berlin isn’t enthusiastic about that idea.
Mending fences, building fences
“The atmosphere in Europe is becoming poisonous,” Arndt Freytag, the German ambassador to the Czech Republic, wrote in the Pravo newspaper. He worried about “xenophobia” and that “eastern and western Europeans are diverging” over the issue.
The Czechs have the best relations with Germany of all four Visegrád countries, and worked to make sure the summit declaration didn’t alienate Berlin, said Milan Nič, head of the Central European Policy Institute, a Bratislava-based think tank.
“The Czechs are trying hard to mend fences with Germany,” he said.
But fences are broadly what the region wants.
The Bulgarian prime minister, warned that strengthening Greece’s borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria would simply shift migrant flows elsewhere.
In addition to Orbán, who has seen his popularity surge thanks to his opposition to migrants, Slovakia’s Robert Fico is also using the issue to boost his chances ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections.
The politics aren’t as clear-cut for Beata Szydło, Poland’s prime minister. Warsaw’s relations with Berlin have turned frosty in recent weeks, as Poland’s new nationalist Law and Justice party government has resurrected historic Polish fears of being dominated by Germany.
Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Law and Justice party, has warned of parasite-carrying migrants, and there is little public enthusiasm in Poland for accepting large numbers of foreigners, but Szydło’s government hasn’t made as much political hay of the issue as Orbán and Fico.
Macedonia and Bulgaria’s presence at the Prague summit is part of the region’s effort to send a signal to the rest of the EU that it wants to block Greece’s northern border if Athens proves unable to act. Macedonia, which isn’t an EU member, in recent days has received offers of help to expand its border fence with Greece.
Bulgaria has been a little more careful. Boyko Borisov, the Bulgarian prime minister, warned that strengthening Greece’s borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria would simply shift migrant flows elsewhere.
On Sunday he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Bulgaria confirms its solidarity with Greece and its disagreement with the idea to close the border between Macedonia and Greece,” said a Bulgarian government media statement on the phone conversation.