Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel reacts during a news conference after a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium December 18, 2015.
Only two of the 11 refugee reception “hotpots” Europe hoped to get up and running this year are working. Less than one percent of the 160,000 migrants it agreed to relocate have been. And a recent drop in arrivals has more to do with the weather than any crackdown by Turkey.
The harsh reality of Europe’s refugee crisis, spelled out in stark numbers and cautionary rhetoric in a report given to EU leaders at their end-of-year summit, was a sobering wake-up call for German Chancellor Angela Merkel after her triumphal showing earlier in the week at a congress of her conservative party.
At that meeting in the southern German city of Karlsruhe, Merkel delivered a passionate defence of her refugee stance and, crucially, pledged to substantially reduce the number of migrants entering Germany.
Her political future probably rests on her ability to deliver on that promise, and to do so in the first few months of 2016, before three state elections take place in mid-March. Yet at the summit in Brussels, it was abundantly clear how limited her leverage really is.
Although she described a “mini-summit” with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu before the full EU met as “very good”, the appetite in other European countries for her voluntary programme to resettle migrants from Turkey seems limited. A majority of EU leaders stayed away.
Publicly, German officials have praised Ankara for its apparent readiness to help Europe on the migrants. Privately they express disappointment with what Turkey has done so far to stem the tide of refugees crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece.
The report by the Luxembourg presidency of the EU on how the bloc is managing the migration flows spoke of “significant gaps” in implementation and acknowledged that the planned relocation of 160,000 migrants — hailed by Merkel in her Karlsruhe speech as a “major success” — was “unsatisfactory”.
Even European Council President Donald Tusk spoke of a “delivery deficit” on the implementation of a range of migrant measures agreed by leaders in recent months. The summit conclusions said: “Deficiencies, notably as regards hotspots, relocation and returns, must be rapidly addressed”
[Source:- REAUTERS]