It seems to be a decided issue: Refugees and migrants will be trapped in Greece. The new Dutch European Union Presidency vowed a tough line on refugees which translates into keeping refugees and migrants out of the central and north Europe. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the numbers of migrants “have to come down” and warned Greece for not doing enough to support them. As expected Rutte brought back the issue of a EU border guard aiming to cancel national sovereignty, a proposal originally tabled by EU President Jean-Claude Juncker on December but that was kindly rejected by the EU member states.
Tough on migration numbers, soft on Poland: those were the two takeaway EU messages Thursday as the Dutch government launched its presidency of the bloc, which it will hold for the next six months.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Europe’s first priority on refugees was to improve efforts to curtail the flow of asylum-seekers arriving into the EU, which reached record numbers in 2015. “The numbers have to come down very much, very considerably,” he told a group of reporters [adding] “We cannot continue with present numbers.”
Key to that effort, according to both Rutte and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, is ensuring the creation of a new, beefed-up EU border guard — an ambitious plan supported by EU leaders at a summit in December.
Rutte offered no specifics on how he would make that happen during the Dutch presidency, saying only that “we will discuss [the issue] every month” in regular meetings of EU interior ministers.
Rutte also delivered a tough warning to Greece and to Central and Eastern European EU countries that have been reluctant to do more to support refugees.
“The Dutch government believes that promises should be kept,” Rutte said. “This will be a guiding principle of the Dutch presidency.” via Politico.eu
Lost in Dutch Calvinism romantic and overwhelmed by his own principles of promises, Rutte wants to split the bill without paying his own share. Correct me if wrong, but I did not hear of any refugees who were flown from Greece for The Netherlands in terms of EU’s Refugee Share Quotas.
Mark Rutte: the Laughing Dutchman who forgot to mention Turkey in his speech on Refugees…
Also, another Dutch, EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, had similarly no idea on how to “solve” the refugee issue by reducing their numbers and yet he told reporters: “Of course we need to do more.”
He had to be asked by reporters on Turkey-EU 3-billion euro deal first to say that the “first results are encouraging but we are a long way from being satisfied.”
EU president Juncker repeated the Save The Schengen mantra and reiterated:
“We have to save Schengen and bring Schengen back to where it belongs. We cannot go on with this process where day after day another member state is reintroducing border controls.”
And they all went to the nearest reception stand to enjoy a refreshment.
Save the Euro, Save the Schengen, Save Europe: I wonder who will save us from all these EU-rulers who are never satisfied.
PS I consider establishing a business in The Netherlands as I hear that it is a tax heaven. However, I still have to find out whether Jeroen Dijsselbloem grants the privilege of establishing enterprises “with registered company address just a mailbox” only to big corporate companies and not poor rats like me.
Schengen would be so nice, getting on the ferry without passport in your homeland must be very nice. The idiots don’t make their homework and still don’t get it that coast guard is defence ministry.
If Greece is saving too many refugees the lowlands can take some thousand and throw them into their own stinky sea but nope the cowards want Greece and Turkey to kill them.
How about we save them all, then register them and then only take in those that we want(what criteria to use is another debate, I prefer actual hilfbedürftigkeit/the need for help meaning people from warzones before people fleeing poverty and children before anyone else) while sending the rest back to turkey.
Criticise and hate the EU for what theyve done too your country all you want, thats fair game to me, but I should hope we all can get behind the idea of Schengen. The tearing down of borders and the freedom this offers to hundreds of millions of europeans is something precious that has rarely happened in history(short of one country conquering another).
Do I wish we could take everyone in and help them? Do I wish all the countries in the world would take down borders so anyone can go where they please? YES
But it cant happen over night. At this point in time the there are 2 options. Either we start to control our borders and the flow of refugees at our exterior borders EU wide, which right now means mostly in greece, or every country starts doing it for themselves.
It’s exactly that you all talk about “your Schengen and your EU” without realizing that in Greece there’s no real Schengen. Eurocentrism at its best since Sarkozy was threatening to kick “Greece out of Schengen” and all Greeks were laughing. “Europeans” should keep on with that nonsense jokes to show the world how dumb stupid and ignorant they still are but when they say they can send refugees “back” to Turkey they mean Greece.
So enlighten me, what do you mean by there is no real sschengen in greece? DO you need a passport if you want to go to italy f.e.?
As for the rest.
Do you know why I like to call myself european but not so much german?
Because for me that is an inclusive term, meaning I dont use to differentiate “us” europeans vs “them” africans /asian…, but rather to include greek, poles swedes italians germans brits….. and celebrate the fact that our countries at least don fight wars against each other anymore, something no other region on earth has managed in this consistency.
Of course Im even more of a human then european, but it all depends on the context of how the words are used, a 170 years ago I would not have had any problems with Deutschland über alles.
You can’t get out of Greece without passport, you can’t board a ferry or a plane without ID and on the road you could go without to Bulgaria but not to Yugoslavia. That’s the result of harsh anti-refugee measures of the last ten years; 95% of the arrests of “illegals” were not made when “invading” Greece but when trying to leave.
You don’t even have freedom of movement inside of Greece, that’s the reason why they were able to identify stupid Syrian government officials as Paris-terrorists on Leros.
Without ID is different from without a passport. OF COURSE you cant board a plane without ID. Seeing how this world is full of crazy people I would say thats ok. The part about “Yugoslavia” you argue against yourself, because the reason for that is precisly that theyre not part of the schengen zone.
As for not having freedom of movement inside of greece, pls explain waht you mean by that and how that is related to eu measures(instead of comin from your own government).
When I think of borders I remember the tears of my fathers cousin after he was able to visit his family for the first time in 30 years because he was finally old enough the corrupt gdr regime wouldnt care whether he came back or not. I think of my nepali guide, who has money health checkups and police reports clearing him and still wont be accepted to go to australia for 2 weeks.
There might be alot of shitty things in this EU but even many of the shitty things are way better then in other parts of this world/past times. Doesnt mean we should stop fighting to make things even better, but it puts things in perspective.
I hope for the arrogant German economy that Schengen will collapse, also for all their ignorant proletarians that are corrupt enough to take welfare instead of revolting against exploitation and for Greece and Europe!
Do you have any idea how many people got stranded at the airport because they believed in that little white lie of open borders and had forgotten their passport at home or it was run out? To justify ID-controls by private-security-bouncers instead of police sounds like putting the home-rules of a kindergarten over the constitution. Everybody knows that Yugoslavia is not Schengen, so they should stop lying about Greece would be part of Schengen, no Greek has any money to travel anyway.
So this discussion is senseless.
It’s also very funny that the banks charge much more to get your own Euros out of the local ATM than it ever was for exchanging into Drachma, not to mention that your kids on holiday were keen on to learn about this strange letters on the money.
If you can’t travel public transports like ferry-boats without ID you are not free of movement in your own country, what comes next? This is not Schengen, you just have too many islands? Reminds me of a Greek band called “Besserwessi”
Hmm. I don’t know that Germany would suffer more from the demise of Schengen than Greece. If i understand your comment correctly, it is about using ID cards instead of passports to travel.
@
As I actually know a lot about this, let me tell you some things. First, the Schengen rules state that ID cannot last more than 10 years and should have a current photo. The Greek ID cards were issued with no expiry date (in breach of Schengen law) and were all handwritten ( an easy to forge). The result? That old men of 70-90 were travelling with taftotites showing 17 year old boys in their photos! That there was no way to check a taftotita issued in 1950 and handwritten by the police ! That non-Greeks were travelling with fake or stolen documents, and the documents could not be checked.
@
So, what happened? When Greek flights arrived in northern Europe, the security police stopped all people without passports and had to chedk them. I noticed that they had Greeks there, to check if the person could speak native Greek. They also tended to be very tough on people who looked Middle Eastern more than European (some Greek do look Middle Eastern). This is no way to manage documents for travel.
@
Why did this happen? It happened when the Greek state was not obviously in crisis, in the early 2000s, because they refused t obey the Schengen rules, and refused to spend any money on modernising the ID cards in Greece. Both Pasok and ND showed complete indifference to the rule of law, and to managing their state documents properly. Bluntly, they didn’t give a fuck. Everyone is now paying the price for the attitude of these jerks.
yup1. 90-year-olds with fake ID are dangerous migrants. right.
oh come on you know what he means.
the point is that its easy to fake them whether they are 90,70,50 or younger.
How is a 30sec check by border control even an inconvenience for anyone but listed criminals?
Mind you this is coming from a guy who even for a german(who as a whole are almost paranoid about government surveillance) is very much critical of government/police surveillance and power.
Presumably, the 90 year olds with pics of them as teens are not fake IDs ! The problem is the system, for which Pasok and ND are respoisble. They showed no interest in protecting the interests of Greek citizens by providing a suitable document that all other countries would respect.
No, it’s the whole scheme. I want to go on board of a ferry and pay there, not before, not with name and without any ID or passport – just normal! – I want to get on a train (with real windows for fresh air) without the need to plan, to book tickets, aso. I want normal life, what they now may call spontaneous. “Normal life” said: Without the smoking ban the terrorists weren’t able to kill so much in Paris.
If the state thinks his oppression-apparatus needs IDs then they should pay for and not the citizens who don’t need IDs anyway as they don’t have any money to travel
I just noticed that this seems to be addressed to me. So I shall reply:-) Well, yes, I agree the aspiration to return to the “old days” when we could walk onto a train and buy a cheap ticket either on hte platform on from the conductor. I miss the days (I am old enough to remember them) when you could walk straight onto a plane without security checks of any sort, and the only delays were caused by weather. I am speaking of intra-country travel, here — not international. The nice and easy simplicity of this was destroyed by 9/11 (as the Yanks insist on calling it) and strangely not by the IRA or anything else homegrown.
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As for international travel, the history of this is telling. When only the rich could afford to travel — that is, prior to the 20th century — there were rigid national borders, quarantine, customs, and terrible problems for those engaged in long-distance travel across borders. Initially, these were ameliorated by giving the well- conncted letters of recommendation etc. These became formalised as passeports (to allow you to pass through the port easily). In the 20th century, the passport became a compulsory identity document for all travellers. Nevertheless, many European countries after 1945 granted visa-free travel to each other’s citizens. The 1957 Treaty of Rome instituted the concept of free movement of workers (this was a novelty) within the Common Market. The story since 1990 (the year of the Schengen and Dublin Treaties) is now well known, and generally made life easier for travellers (but not refugees).
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So, my question to you is the following: How can we remove the need for IDs when travelling, along with horrendous security checks, when the entire system is constructed along those lines? Of course, I agree that the cost of IDs is a disgusting situation (my last passport cost €270) but this is the result of neoliberal ideology of the State. People across the EU have voted for parties and politicians that made clear their intentions to do such things. I cannot see any way to change anything without massive political change. Thus far, only Greece has had that.
Hey Xenos!
First of all it’s all about free movement inside of Greece but as it appears the only people that can move free on the sea are fishermen and owners of yachts and every body else trying to travel normal by using money as paper of permission will be considered a trafficker or terrorist and then we’ll see losing free movement also by train because when everything is sold to the blood sucking greedy bastards one will have to pay 250 Euros to ride free from Salonica to Attica through a destroyed landscape, destroyed for the sake of saving unbelievable 30 minutes travel-time, I guess this 30 minutes are a tribut to the hard working business-men visiting brothels, so brothels have to come back closer to train-stations and bring jobs in construction.
O.k. one doesn’t need a train and can make it on bicycle in a week, so we are still free to ride…
Regarding the voting: If the participation is under 50% it can’t be excepted by the sovereign, although it should be cancelled much more earlier, Syriza was voted by 19.5%, this must be the joke called democrazy.
For to travel the Europeans should allow this only to poor families organized by the state and the unions, the rest as fed up consumer is not able to appreciate it anyway, he needs to shoot photos instead of closing his*her eyes.
Regarding security: Just like in the brothels of the future they let pay and identify via scanner for chips transplanted in the Embryo unless there will be no blackout by war or revolution
“If you can’t travel public transports like ferry-boats without ID you are not free of movement in your own country, what comes next? ”
Frankly I dont understand your fury here. In theory Im ALWAYS required to have my Personalausweis(ID) with me. If the police wants to check me and I dont have it with me they can take me to the station until they know my identity. And I would say this is a wise and fair practice, because de facto the only times my ID was ever checked was in or around demonstrations that at least had the potential to go violent.
Also:”
I hope for the arrogant Greek economy that Schengen will collapse, also for all their ignorant proletarians that are corrupt enough to take welfare instead of revolting against exploitation and for Germany and Europe!”
On the day you realize that your statements and views are often at least slightly racicst Ill take my ID come to greece and treat you and KTG and and everyone else who wants to come to a big party(take your time, Im not that liquid right now 😉
Btw
ehm… excuse me?
Its what gigi wrote only with greece and ger reversed.
This is again one of your typical lies, as police will not take you away, they sit in their car and check ID via radio, even if you run a red. I have no chance to stop your trollarmy behaviour as the internet steals my answers. But I hate your typical German attitude to pick single words or parts of sentences to proof someone (in your case even a whole country of what I must be the queen of) is “wrong” and your own special superiority, the only racism I can see here is whining about any “anti-german” blurb and call it racism, AFD and Pegida also call Antigermans rascist, btw and antigermans call 99% critics antisemite.
Unfortunately I don’t have money to print some national coloured toilet paper for people who have identity problems and need a flag.
Probably true that they radio in the ID, they COULD hold me until identity is cleared. As for the rest.
“But I hate your typical German attitude to pick single words or parts of sentences to proof someone (in your case even a whole country of what I must be the queen of) ”
I have never equated you to anyone else in greece. What you say is what YOU say and it doesnt stand for anyone else. On the other hand I have a “typical german attitude”. This is what ticks me about your posts. You say i generalize what you say to all greeks, but fail to provide examples(because I dont) and in the same sentence manage to do what you just accused me of.
YOu regulary judge me or others not on behaviour or actions but on germaness and once I point out that this fits into the very definition of racism you blantantly accuse me being an afd/pediga sympathizer even though you know from earlier posts that every time those idiots show up in my town i stand on the other side of the fence counterprotesting.
Im not worried about anti german raciscm as societal phenomenom, that would be ludicrous, but as far as your posts are concerned, well its there and like all kinds of raciscm it is offensive(like I presume KTG found my reversed text somewhat offensive).
Schengen is no big deal and not worth saving so why should we “get behind it”? You show your passport at borders, is that such a problem? No.
Greek customs could keep the Troika out that way: Security Risk. And Dutch government too!
lol -, the Troikans will try to enter without passport
I dont like borders. You have no problems with showing your passport, ok. What about about having to wait for hours. Or reinstating visas…
What I find the most fascinating is that you want to reinstate those border controls but presumably are ok with hundreds of thousands of people crossing without any control or passport.
Tsigantes if you want out of the Euro no other country can stop you. If you want out of schengen same thing, but dont complain afterwards if bordercontrols are reinstated at the then schengen/greece border.
EU citizens do not require visa even without Schengen
Yes, but this is a continuum.
Tell me you dont see the irony in the position of saying: I dont want to control our exterior borders because that would somehow be inhumane and then saying I dont care about internal controls(that are a result of not controling the exterior borders) because those dont matter at all.
Also wouldnt most people who want to get out of schengen get out of the EU as well.
Nobody is saying this except from CSU-anti-hellenistic hate mongers who in the end created Pegida with their hunting and not the anti-greek pogroms they provoked and hoped for but we all know how this works: “Dear, Alexis don’t forget the 500.000 Greeks in Germany, what will happen to them and their shops if you don’t compromise?” – no pogroms necessary, this time.
enough with the @che – @GiGi dispute. thank you
saw this too late, will shut up now
Hmm. I find myself disagreeing with everyone here! Possibly, this is because I have researched and published on it since 1989.
First, what is Schengen? It is a treaty that was first signed in 1985, and at that point was focused more on cross-border collaboration concerning justice and policing. The 1990 treaty is the one that everyone knows, and this is about removing border controls within the Schengen zone, establishing the Schengen Information System computer database, and the establishment of Schengen visa for people to travel here.
Secondly, why did this happen outside of the EC framework? Because the UK, Denmark etc refused to implement the removal of border controls that is implicit in free movement of EC nationals. Having done this, Schengen was then brought into the EU framework with the UK and Denmark opting out (as usual).
Thirdly, why should it matter? It matters more, now that it is EU policy, because it means that the EU is failing if Schengen fails. The EU is already failing with the eurozone. Additional policy failures imply that the entire EU edifice could collapse.
Fourthly, does it matter if the EU falls apart? Yes, because European countries need each other, and will have deteriorating economies and political security on their own. The racist malakes called Hungarians — who caused the collapse of the East European system — may cause the collapse of the EU. Although it may be inevitable, do we really want a third world war?
Putting the Dutch extreme right government in charge of the EU is akin to arranging for the mafia to abolish organized crime — in other words, a disaster from the outset. We can expect no solutions to any of the massive problems currently confronting Europe, just nasty right wing rhetoric and racism.
In Chios all Frontex officers first refused to work because they were afraid of getting cancer and then they left the island because they thought it more important to make holidays back home instead of saving life. Why can’t these mercenaries not be smart and have holidays in Chios and get some refugees out of the water all at the same time?
Hey xenos, Ive been meaning to ask you about the brexit. How do you think UK will vote?
I think it will be a close call, but in the end they will vote to stay in. The dangers attached to exit are very great, and the benefits almost none. Cameron included this stupid referendum as a popular vote getter — popular with uneducated people, that is.
It is the same sort of problem as the idea of Greece exiting the euro. It sounds a nice idea, to tell the EU to fuck off… until you consider the likely consequences.
so it is.
Germany may be the Order-Carry-Outer of Washington, but Nederlands has always been USA’s trojan horse in Europe.
The Dutch with their fake Calvinism tell so many outright lies (‘Greece is not doing enough’ a good starter – what exactly is Nederlands doing may we ask??) and nobody, absolutely nobody, ever calls them on it.
the Netherlands is growing tulips and fake tomatoes
They also grow fake economists, and call them Diesel Blooms.