European Union

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Back in 2005, it was Jean-Claude Juncker who caught the mood after Dutch and French voters spurned a draft EU constitution. “Europe is not in crisis: it is in deep crisis,” he declared. He has gone from Luxembourgish premier to European Commission president since then – and the Dutch are back to saying No. This time team Juncker relayed that the president was just “sad” about the rejection of the Ukraine trade deal. And for europhiles that pretty much sums it up.

This has been a long journey. Referendums on European issues, from the 1970s on, largely acted as a rite of passage: membership, enlargement, monetary union. They then morphed into more wide ranging political guarantees for eurosceptic voters (in Denmark, Britain or France) wary of where pro-European politicians may lead them. Some would call them a reality check.

More recently they have grown to be not just domestic political matters, but negotiating tools or instruments of coercion abroad. This is the weaponisation of referendums and a few EU leaders have been accused of the tactic: Greece’s Alexis Tsipras over bailout terms, Britain’s David Cameron to win a better deal, and Hungary’s Viktor Orban over migration quotas.

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The propagande and the reality are noticeably different about the Hungarian patrols of 600 soldiers and 400 policemen at the border between Hungary and Serbia (175 km). At about the same number at the Croatian border. The basical units of the border security are the duos of a soldier and a police officer, deployed by 2-3 border stone.

They work 18-20 hours a day for 1-2 weeks and live in pits dug by themselves. They also tinker tents with garbage bags that they also wear against rain because their jacket can not stand the rain for an hour. They often undergo super-controls forcing their for example to extinguish the fire which serves as the only way to warm up. On paper they are eating 5000 calories but in fact they have 2 sandwich, 1 apple and 1 chocolate per day.

In addition the policemen do not see why they work, because they lack the equipment needed to see at night when they have a few meters of visibility and so they are almost incapable of intercepting migrants who cut the fence.

This is not a refugee camp, this is the EU border control in Hungary

La propagande et la réalité sont visiblement différents quant aux patrouilles des 600 soldats et 400 policiers hongrois à la frontière serbo-hongroise (180 km). A peu près le même effectif à la frontière croate. Les bases de la sécurité frontalière sont les duos composés d`un soldat et d`un policier, ils sont déployés par 2-3 pierres de frontière.

Ils travaillent 18-20 heures par jour durant 1-2 semaines et habitent dans les fosses creusées par eux-mêmes. Ils bricolent également des tentes à l`aide des sacs de poubelle qu`ils portent également contre la pluie, car leur veste ne supporte la pluie que pendant une heure. Ils subissent souvent des super-controls qui leur oblige par exemple d`éteindre le feu qui leur est le seul moyen de se réchauffer. Sur papier ils mangent 5000 calories mais en réalité ils n`ont que 2 sandwich, 1 pomme et 1 chocolat par jour.

De plus les policiers ne voient pas la raison de leur travaille car ils ne disposent pas d`équipements nécessaires pour voir pendant la nuit lorsqu`ils ont une visibilité de quelques mètres et ainsi ils sont presque incapables d`intercepter les migrants qui coupent la clôture.

Tag: Hungarymigration

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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Welcome to Thursday’s edition of our daily Brussels Briefing. To receive it every morning in your email in-box, sign up here.

David Cameron has had a frustrating week. Since the Panama Papers revealed the offshore dealings of his late father, the British prime minister has vainly tried to stop questions over his family potentially benefiting from tax avoidance. He first politely parried and demanded privacy, then changed tack, clarified his position, challenged his critics to provide evidence, then clarified three times more. Today we know a great deal about what Mr Cameron does not own. But it still isn’t over.

Through this mini-ordeal, Mr Cameron enjoyed one advantage. He can point to a record of championing transparency and fighting offshore corporate dodges. But now even this defensive shield is looking a little shaky.

The FT’s Jim Brunsden has dug deep into a bygone Brussels legislative battle over corporate secrecy and uncovered Mr Cameron’s intriguing personal role. He indeed pressed hard to expose beneficial owners of shell companies. But there was a caveat. In an EU law to tackle money laundering and end harmful secrecy, he wanted special treatment for trusts, discrete legal vehicles Brits have used for centuries to manage estates and pass assets down generations. That now looks a little awkward.

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