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Simple formula: Germany wants EU’s external borders in FYROM to avoid burdening its economy with €10 bn per year

Alarmed by the press leakages about Greece’s expulsion from Schengen or the establishment of a 400,000-people camp in Athens, EU officials rushed to dismiss ‘the news’. EU sources told Greek private Star TV that “there has never been a plan to expel Greece from Schengen.” Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon claimed that his proposal to establish a camp for 400,000 refugees and migrants in Greece was “just an orientation proposal during an informal discussion among EU’s interior ministers.”

But you know how these things work and how policy makers operate: they leak their plans and check for the reactions. And signs are strong that the EU plans indeed to have migrants and refugees trapped in Greece and limit EU’s external borders to FYROM, a country which is not a member of the European Union..

EU affairs website Politico knows even better: its journalists acquainted a letter sent by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar, who in fact had made the proposal apparently following with religious devotion Berlin’s guidelines.

Juncker drops Greece, bets on Macedonia – Refugees should stay in Greece rather than making their way to Germany.

In a letter sent Monday, Juncker backed Slovenia’s proposal for EU support to reinforce the Macedonian border with Greece to stem the northward flow of migrants. Under this plan, most migrants who got to Greece would stay in place, taking pressure off transfer countries but eventually also from Austria and Germany.

“I welcome your suggestion,” Juncker wrote to Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar, assuring him of the Commission’s support for his plan for all EU countries to “provide assistance to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia authorities to support controls on the border with Greece through the secondment of police/law enforcement officers, and the provision of equipment.” POLITICO saw a copy of the letter.

Taking into consideration that Greece will never accept this, old-fox Juncker has worked out plans on how to bypass the obstacle of FYROM being non EU-member and of FRONTEX not been allowed to operate in non-EU member countries.

“As Macedonia isn’t a member of the EU, Juncker said EU countries would have to reach bilateral agreements with the government in Skopje to dispatch police to the border with Greece. The rules in place for the EU’s border protection agency only allowed for missions within the EU, not for the “deployment of officers in the framework of a Frontex joint operation on the territory of a third country.”

In this context one should also see Juncker’s proposals for strengthening the Frontex. In his proposal made last December,  Juncker said that this would address this “shortcoming,” and pave the way for Frontex missions outside EU territory.

“Why all this trouble and new European southern borders and bilateral agreement?” one may wonder. The answer is rather clear: the option of Schengen free-passport zone to collapse causes shudder and shiver to Germany, first of all. Because abolishing the Schengen zone and re-imposing border controls would cause German economy an additional burden of estimated 10 billion euro per year.

According to German conservative daily DIE WELT, “border controls will cause long queues of trucks at the borders, long waiting times, more bureaucracy and severe delays in just-in-time delivery of goods.”

Therefore, Berlin would love to move the border controls to the FYROM-Greece borders and avoid to have to impose controls on its own borders.

So simple. And so much about United Europe and melodramatic European values of “all for one, one for himself”!

See also KTGs post about EU’s plans on Greece & Migration – posted Jan 26/2016: All pressure on Greece: camps for 400K refugees, trade debt for migrants, expel from Schengen.

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14 comments

  1. Giaourti Giaourtaki

    A long strike at the passport controls in Patra and Igoumenitsa would help a bit to ease this strange situation and keep Frontex busy in the Adria.

  2. Greece cannot possibly accept Frontex acting illegally on its territory to prevent departure of non-EU nationals from an EU country. This is a breach of Greek sovereignty and also of international law. It is entirely up to Greece to determine how non-citizens exit the country: is the EU intending to build Iron Curtains around the Balkans? Maybe we can have machine guns in watchtowers, electrified fences (as they have in Spain on the African border)? Perhaps we can also split Berlin into east and west again, as we all miss the fun of that.

    • the only thing the frontex will be allowed is to prevent Greeks leaving Greece

    • ” It is entirely up to Greece to determine how non-citizens exit the country”
      If greece wishes to insist on this they can certainly do so, but then you cant complain about being kicked out of schengen. Either we have shared borders with shared soverignity(on border issues) or we dont, cant have it both ways.

      “Maybe we can have machine guns in watchtowers, electrified fences (as they have in Spain on the African border)? Perhaps we can also split Berlin into east and west again, as we all miss the fun of that.”

      This is why proper border control is necessary. Meaning sea rescue missions throughout the med followed by registration and the prompt return of those whose asylum will be denied. As much as I loathe borders, there is no scenario where unlimited access to eu countries for the rest of the world is viable, at least not in the near future.
      So the question isnt border or no borders for everyone, the question is whether we have one shared border and free travel for those inside or whether we get a dysfunctional system where every country controls for themselves again.

      • Giaourti Giaourtaki

        There are no “shared borders” and if Frontex tries to protect Yugoslavian borders on Greek space some might call this a Casus Belli, Germoney’s best friend Turkey would do so and as they’ve also learned from Germoney that (Octoberfest)-bombs are good to manipulate elections I guess if for any reasons – like pogroms – refugees will have to flee from Germoney to Poland and Frontex will protect Polish borders this way Germoney will call this the same way.

      • I suggest that you read the Schengen Treaty of 1990 and the Schengen Acquis (case law and further legislation) instead of repeating garbage from the mouths of ignorant politicians.

        • Not sure how mcuh reading material that would be but if its managable i might follow your suggestion.
          That being said, do you honestly believe that if greece says we will help anyone who wants to through our country into the eu, that the other countries would or even could go with that?
          If the greek government has no interest in even registering refugees and instead keeps dumping all the follow up problems on the other countries while pating itself on the back for the humanitarian efforts of its citizens this seems the natural response.
          swe ger and austria are full, another 1+million this year is simply not viable, if that happens people will freeze on the streets next winter.
          Also while numbers from syria irak are somewhat stable its the numbers from the magreb nations that are rising, aka. young men who are fleeing poverty (not war) and who havce almost 0 chance of being accepted. Better to send them home right away instead of making them pay thousands to smugglers then letting them wait for a year without any perspectives and then sending them home.

          • Giaourti Giaourtaki

            Greece’s fault not to shoot airplanes? Everybody knows about the 70 Euro-flights from Maghreb to Istanbul, oh wait, let’s have some Greek Frontex do their registration at a Turkish airport, don’t tell Märklin, it’s the best idea ever.
            So, let’s have another blast in Paris to find in Greece never registered persons? Everybody believe your media-lies, nobody knows or ever wanna hear about never delivered EU-fingerprinters or Frontex-mercenaries but wait even Frontex claims in Greece registered persons for their actual statistics.
            The best hyped story was about the EU-money for refugees to Greece that materialized as only possible to be given for people with granted asylum and it’s always like this.

        • “Article 20

          The Parties shall endeavour to harmonise their visa policies and the conditions for entry to their territories. In so far as is necessary, they shall also prepare the harmonisation of their rules governing certain aspects of the law on aliens in regard to nationals of States that are not members of the European Communities.”

          There you go, sovereignity ceded to the community.

        • also found this from “Key points of the Schengen acquis”
          “4. Harmonised visa policies of Schengen countries (common list of third countries whose nationals require or do not require visas).
          5. External border checks according to a common Schengen standard.
          6. Access by all Schengen countries to the Schengen Information System (SIS), which provides data on persons and objects throughout the Schengen area especially in connection with inquiries by police and judicial authorities.

          next time please be more specific on the “garbage” part, cant read all those treaties.

          • There is no provision in Schengen concerning exit from the territory to a non-Schengen state (such as FYR Macedonia).
            #
            The Schengen border code requires all irregular entrants to be fingerprinted electronically and communicated directly by VPN to the Eurodac database. They provided Greece with only half a dozen or so machines, so that 10,000 people arrived per day and had to be processed with 3 machines on Lesvos. The Greek police gave up with the stupid tecynology idea and took manual fingerprints for practical and humanitarian reasons. The UN swupports Greece in this regard.
            #
            Basically, the EU staff is a collection of overpaid jobsworths who have no interest in reality. The EU governments are right wing bigots, who want to blame the refugee crisis on Greece. You can safelty ignore everything they say: it’s lies and propaganda.

          • Giaourti Giaourtaki

            Digital finger printing can be torture, so you’re perfect right with humanitarian reasons, it looks all perfect on TV but it can take hours and if the cops have too long nails it’s ugly.

  3. Giaourti Giaourtaki

    Against Piraeus! Remember the blockade in Idomeni and that HP was shipping their goods to Trieste instead? Not far from Trieste is another container-port for big ships, in Koper, Slovenia, renovated with EU-money waiting for customers; so far lots of their turnover goes to Hungary and Austria.