World Humanitarian Day slated for today
Today marks the 11th annual World Humanitarian Day.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing governments to impose greater restrictions on cross-border movement, the number of migrants trying to enter the EU is on the rise. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that attempted crossings of the Mediterranean Sea in June increased 20% year-on-year, bringing the EU migrant crisis that first started in 2015 back into the spotlight.
Tensions between high volume receiving countries, such as Greece and Italy, and Brussels have spiked due to a perceived lack of support for the former. Considering that migration continues to be a polarising issue for the bloc, and with general elections scheduled in Germany and France in 2021 and 2022, respectively, expect EU leadership to look to establish a more assertive and unified European response. Furthermore, the European Commission’s highly anticipated pact on migration is due to be presented after the summer, under the leadership of the German EU Presidency, which has prioritised seeking an agreement on a fairer distribution of asylum seekers across EU members.
However, considering the past resistance of countries unwilling to take on migrants arriving in southern Europe, in particular from Eastern European member states such as Poland and Hungary, the bloc is likely to hit an impasse on proposed reforms to the migration policy.
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