Abstract
Here, we examine how the migration crisis has surpassed the economic turmoil of the Eurozone to become the EU’s greatest existential threat. With the migrant crisis, the very boundaries over which free movement should be allowed are being debated—and even what can be meant by the “free” movement or migration of peoples, from both without and within Europe and the EU.
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Notes
- 1.
West Germany signed bilateral agreements with a number of European countries (Italy, Greece and Spain) and Turkey which allowed for the recruitment of less skilled workers in West Germany’s factories during the boom years of industrial growth known at the time as the German “Economic Miracle”.
- 2.
Those from Algeria went to France and the UK continued to receive many from the British Commonwealth.
- 3.
For Greece (1981) and Spain and Portugal (1986), there was a 6-year transitional period.
- 4.
Freedom of Movement was one of the original Four ‘Freedoms’ with Capital, Customs and Services.
- 5.
UK choose not to use this option at all, when the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined. The UK was one of only 3 of the original EU members (UK, Sweden and Eire) to choose not to apply transitional restrictions on these eight countries.
- 6.
Anne White. (2011). “Post-communist Poland: Social Change and Migration”, in Polish Families and Migration Since EU Accession. Policy Press. p. 27.
- 7.
- 8.
Including those from outside the EU.
- 9.
63,000 NHS staff in England are EU nationals House of Commons library published 10 October 2018.
- 10.
- 11.
An interview (personal views) with Anna Mikhailova Political Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.
- 12.
- 13.
OECD April 2016 controversial report entitled “The Economic Consequences of Brexit: A Taxing Decision” suggested that a Brexit vote would be damaging to the UK with a “knock on” effect on other European countries and also reducing the UK GDP by over 3% by 2020 and 5% by 2030. The report forecasts a decline in foreign direct investment, as the UK would no longer be the conduit allowing for access to the EU internal market. See also the (NIESR) National Institute of Economic and Social Research report to be published 9 May 2016.
- 14.
Guardian, 28 February 2019.
- 15.
See Chapter 4 on Populism and the aftermath of Brexit.
- 16.
Article 45(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
- 17.
Article 45(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
- 18.
The UK government reintroduced exit checks in 2015, but these fell well short of the physical, visible checks after security, which are airport-enforced.
- 19.
The Draft Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union published on 14 November 2018 on how to implement Brexit.
- 20.
Interview held on 20 July 2019.
- 21.
www.theguardian.com, 10 April 2019.
- 22.
Directive 2004/38/EC (the “EU citizens’ Directive”, which is the source of the main legal rules on this issue) sets out the “categories” of people with an EU law-based right to reside in a host Member State for longer than three months—essentially, workers/the self-employed and their family members, students and the self-sufficient. Students must have health insurance and make a declaration of sufficient resources.
- 23.
A posted worker is defined as “a person who, for a limited period of time, carries out his or her work in the territory of an EU Member State other than the state in which he or she normally works” (Council Directive 96/71/EC). Directive 96/71 only takes employees into consideration.
- 24.
BBC News, 24 August 2017.
- 25.
The destruction of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 engineered (in part) by the West, leaving anarchy to reign in Libya coupled with the failure to act decisively to intervene in Syria’s civil war created the conditions for the mass migrations now destabilizing the EU.
- 26.
Data published by the Internal Telecommunications Union, published 25 May 2015.
- 27.
- 28.
At the Bratislava EU Summit 16 September 2016, hosted by the Slovakia, the Visegrad Group called for “flexible solidarity”, a policy by which states that do not want to take migrants could contribute financially with equipment and manpower to the EU’s migration policy—as is already the case in the Balkans.
- 29.
COR interviews and Polish commentators.
- 30.
- 31.
Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe Published by Bloomsbury 2017.
- 32.
Financial Times, 10 February 2019.
- 33.
Interview held on 17 June 2019 with George Shishkov a former MP Bulgarian of the Democratic party and Presidential Adviser on Border Control and Frontex Operations in Bulgaria.
- 34.
- 35.
The EU has announced tighter control for ID cards in order to reduce identity fraud 21 February 2019.
- 36.
- 37.
https://www.statewatch.org/news/sep, 14 September 2018.
- 38.
- 39.
Schengen Agreement is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe’s Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the ten member states of the then European Economic Community. There are currently 26 members (the UK and Ireland are not members).
- 40.
George Shishkov formerly head of Bulgaria’s Border Control recommends strengthening of Frontex the EU agency charged with management of Schengen and EU external borders (interview 17 June 2019).
- 41.
In 2008, the Italian and Libyan governments agreed a treaty to stop uncontrolled migration from Libya To Italy which led to the enforced return of migrants by the Italian coast guard authorities, a policy which fell apart with the advent of civil war against the Gaddafi regime in 2011 but which also led to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 2012 that Italy was in breach of the European Convention of Human rights for expelling migrants to face potential danger from the regime in Libya.
- 42.
www.europarl.europa.eu/eu-affairs/sc…, 29 May 2018.
- 43.
EU leaders views on Turkish visas and Acqui Communitaire progression.
- 44.
- 45.
EU Support to Syrian Refugees in Turkey
The EU is supporting refugees in Turkey with €6 billion for 2016-2019 through its Facility for Refugees in Turkey—€3 billion from the EU budget and €3 billion contributed by EU Member States—in two tranches. By the end of 2017, the EU had fully committed and contracted €3 billion under the first tranche with 72 projects rolled out, showing tangible results, with more than €2 billion disbursed. The EU is currently mobilizing the second tranche of facility funding and has already committed €1.2 billion, of which €450 million has been contracted and €150 million disbursed. Facility funding goes to projects to address the needs of refugees and host communities with a focus on humanitarian aid, education, health, and socioeconomic support that includes the necessary municipal infrastructure.
- 46.
“The EU’s migration policy must be linked to Security, stronger security reinforced by technological advances” (George Shishkov former Head of Border control in Bulgaria).
- 47.
Italy has refused to take in people from search-and-rescue ships since its government came to office last June. The country’s deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, has declared Italian waters closed to rescue boats, leaving a series of NGO vessels and their stricken passengers stuck at sea with nowhere to land.
- 48.
www.theguardian.com, 4 July 2018.
- 49.
The Human Rights Watch Report 2019.
- 50.
The suspension of sea patrols as part of operation Sophia in central Mediterranean waters remained in place until 30 September 2019, though air patrols were stepped up. The mission continued training the Libyan coastguard—part of a controversial strategy that critics say led to people being trapped in Libyan detention centres, where they suffer horrific abuse.
- 51.
www.theguardian.com, 27 March 2019.
- 52.
“Old Europe” a term first used in January 2003 by the then US Secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld in reference to European Countries before the fall of Communism.
- 53.
www.ft.com, 23 February 2019.
- 54.
4 largest trading partner of the EU linked by a Customs Union Agreement which came into force 31 December 1995.
- 55.
Financial Times, 24 February 2019.
- 56.
Council of the EU 133/19, 24 February 2019.
- 57.
https://www.ons.gov.uk, February 2019.
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Theodore, J. (2019). Immigration: What Now?. In: Survival of the European (Dis) Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31214-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31214-5_3
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