EU Summit, All Attention to Migration

The immigration issue returns, even with alarming tones, at the EU leaders' summit in Brussels.

How will undocumented immigrants, mainly Africans, continue to risk the lives of the Mediterranean, hoping to start a new life in the EU? This will be the main topic of the summit.

The influx of immigrants continues, despite the lack of a 2015 crisis. The European Council, it says, has dropped by 96 per cent since October 2015.

But tensions over migrants, now banned from entering Italian ports, have put the matter back under projectors. The Dublin regulation, under which asylum seekers must stay in the EU entry country, is not functioning.

Italy and Greece demand that the burden be shared with other countries. Austria's rightist government, which also assumes the rotating presidency of July 1st, also has a tough attitude towards migrants. The Visegrad Group, the Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland also refuses the EU scheme for refugee quotas.

But great attention will also focus on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her coalition partner CSU has threatened to close borders unless an agreement is reached, challenging Merkel's policies.

Without CSU it loses the parliamentary majority. “The challenge of immigration will either make or undo the European union”, Merkel said in a speech in Bundestag, before the summit. According to her, the fate of the EU depends on the ability of the union to face this challenge. If we fail to reach a comprehensive agreement, she says, we should consider voluntary coalitions.