European press praise and foreboding over migrant proposals
- Published
Refugees wait for medical examinations in Schoeneberg, in Berlin
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's plans to provide a "swift, determined and comprehensive" response to Europe's migrant crisis prompt various reactions in the European press, ranging from praise to apprehension.
'Payment demands'
German commentators generally welcome Mr Juncker's proposals, but expect him to face considerable resistance.
Andre Tauber in Die Welt says his speech was "well received in the European Parliament, earning bipartisan applause", but warns that Mr Juncker has a "lot of persuading still to do" to get a forthcoming interior ministers' meeting to accept his quota proposals.
He warns that the Commission will have to "work hard to ensure that all EU member-states actually implement the agreed asylum policy, external", and may end up having to "issue payment demands" to some countries.
Die Welt says integration of refugees in Germany has "highest priority" for Chancellor Merkel
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, the foreign editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, says the migration crisis is not the greatest problem facing the EU, and complains it is a "cheap shot to blame the EU for not immediately having the right strategy to hand in the face of the hundreds of thousands who are surging into the continent".
He fears that Mr Juncker's proposals will not "solve the problem", because some Europeans have not accepted that "coping with the refugee crisis is not a privilege of the few, it applies to all". Turning to the conflict in Syria itself, he says it is time to "deal with the murderous fire in our neighbourhood seriously, and not just with slogans, external".
'Panic'
Hungary's media are more immediately concerned with the situation on their borders, but some commentators note that the governing Fidesz party has not welcomed Mr Juncker's proposals.
Liberal Nepszava says the Hungarian government "remains out of step with its sister parties in the EU, opposes the Juncker package, and with the backing of the other Central European countries will not allow anyone into Europe".
The paper says the key question is whether EU states will back the Juncker package consistently, and quotes Fidesz MP Gergely Gulyas to the effect that Central Europe is "united in thinking that, until we manage to halt mass immigration, there is no point in discussing quotas, external".
The Hungarian paper Magyar Hirlap quotes a ruling party official as saying the migrant crisis "justifies deployment of the army" in his country
Other papers are largely content to let Fidesz's opposition speak for itself. Mariann Ory in Magyar Hirlap says MPs told her the quotas "seem unreal", and that "Brussels doesn't see the real problem, external".
Philippe Gellie in France's Le Figaro is also apprehensive about quotas. He notes Mr Juncker's comment that "fear is a poor counsellor". "True," he writes, "but panic is even worse, when it is a policy that imposes a commitment on Europe that will last years, maybe decades, external".
'Act now'
France's left-wing newspaper Liberation, on the other hand, praises Mr Juncker's proposals as a rejection of the "initial disorderly, often selfish, reactions based on domestic political agendas", and sees "Europeans now determined to respond together, external".
One of 12 European titles to unite in urging EU leaders to do more over the migrant crisis, Liberation urges Europe to "show today that it is a united continent built on solidarity, equality and freedom, external... Our leaders must show courage and insight if they do not want to fail this test... We must act and we must act now".
Mr Juncker's proposals seek in part to ease the pressure on Mediterranean countries, and Gianluca Luzi in Italy's La Repubblica, external thinks this is about time:
"His tough words revealed a continent that has rediscovered its soul and politics only thanks to the courage of Germany's Chancellor Merkel and the Italian government, which for months has gone unheeded by the European authorities, but which has never ceased to receive and provide assistance to the refugees".
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