Source: KBIA
Speaking on KBIA, Carnegie’s Erik Brattberg discussed how European policy has evolved since the summer of 2015 when the migration crisis exploded in Europe. Regardless of the fact that a migration plan has been adapted to accommodate newfound challenges, it still has its flaws, Brattberg said. He offered as an example the European deal with Turkey, which was largely designed to keep migrants in Turkey in exchange for European aid. A similar plan has been considered with Libya, another country through which a huge number of migrants attempt to enter Europe, but was never replicated because of government and internal instability, he added.
Inconsistency in European strategy largely comes from the need for the region to develop an internal, unified immigration policy, Brattberg said. He explained that this would be the first step towards resettling and redistributing migrants more equitably throughout the continent. Without such a policy, he added, states like Greece, Italy, and Germany will be forced to bear the brunt of the crisis. All in all, he concluded, this issue is essential to European national sovereignty and is the current focus of the European project.