Drowning Boat People and the Nervous Breakdown of EU Politics

There are few political issues that have laid bare the weaknesses of European integration as brutally as those desperate boat people trying to make their way across the sea to the hopeful shores of the EU. There is a reason for this. The refugee crisis is just a part of a complex and massive public policy failure by the EU and its member states in the field of migration.

Tthe crisis goes to the core of the European project: it has proved that at the crossroads of foreign and identity politics, European commonalities end very quickly. It is much easier to do nothing, or to halfheartedly fight the symptoms, than to act together as Europeans.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Drowning Boat People and the Nervous Breakdown of EU Politics http://www.europeansources.info/record/there-is-little-basis-for-viewing-migrants-in-the-mediterranean-as-a-threat-to-the-indigenous-population-of-europe/

ESO: Background information: Italy slams rebel north as migrant crisis deepens http://www.europeansources.info/record/italy-slams-rebel-north-as-migrant-crisis-deepens/

ESO: Background information: EU commission engulfed in migrant 'quota' battle http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-commission-engulfed-in-migrant-quota-battle/

ESO: Background information: European Commission makes progress on Agenda on Migration http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-european-commission-makes-progress-on-agenda-on-migration/

El Periódico de Catalunya, 16.06.15: Refugee dispute could tear up EU (via Euro|Topics) http://www.eurotopics.net/en/home/presseschau/archiv/aehnliche/archiv_article/ARTICLE164705-Refugee-dispute-could-tear-up-EU

BBC News, 16.06.15: EU solidarity damaged by splits on migrants and Greece http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33152890

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

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