This Week in Europe: 24/06/2018
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Europe!
In Romania, the battle between the judiciary and political corruption continues. Liviu Dragnea, leader of the Social Democrat Party, the long-time governing party in Romania, has been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of corruption and abuses of power. Tens of thousands have marched both in favour and against the government over this issue, with government supporters claiming it is a political attack by the judiciary. Romania is known to have a problem with corruption and is under special surveillance by EU bodies to ensure it does not backslide. The Romanian government may therefore soon come into conflict with the EU as it tries to pass new legislation to prevent further anti-corruption prosecutions.
Italy and France have been engaged in a war of words over migration. When Macron pointed to the sharp fall in arrivals from outside of Europe as showing that the emergency was over, the Italian populist leaders Di Maio and Salvini reacted angrily and attacked Macron for being arrogant. 16 countries will attend a mini-summit on migration to tackle these issues ahead of the full EU Council summit this month. Though the rhetoric has heated up, in practice there may be more agreement as Italy has still generally signalled that it wants a European solution to dealing with asylum seekers. Officially, the generally anti-migration governments of the Visegrad Group have stated they are boycotting the meeting, though it is not clear they were ever included in the first place and it seems unlikely they would oppose a European solution that toughened up the external border.
Spain is also among those countries committed to finding a European solution and demonstrated their solidarity this week, accepting the arrival of hundreds of asylum seekers that had been blocked from docking in either Italy or Malta and performing multiple rescue missions. After blocking the Aquarius, which was then given refuge by Spain, Italy and Malta have also turned away Lifeline, another rescue ship, whose fate remains uncertain. Spain, Italy, France and Malta are all key to resolving the problem of illegal migration along the EU's southern border, making some sort of agreement on a common system between these states to share the burden essential.
Merkel has been forced to meet a new challenge after anger from the CDU's more conservative sister party, the CSU. High-profile figures in the CSU have toughened up their language against asylum seekers and threatened to turn them away at the border. This dispute has, in turn, prompted a response from the Austrian leader, Sebastian Kurz, who has stated that he would reimpose border controls with Germany if the German authorities tried to send refugees back.
Finally, this week Estonia celebrated 100 years since its independence. The country declared independence from Russia in 1918 and after two years successfully defeated Soviet forces, supported by Latvia, the UK and anti-Bolshevik Russian forces.
In Romania, the battle between the judiciary and political corruption continues. Liviu Dragnea, leader of the Social Democrat Party, the long-time governing party in Romania, has been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of corruption and abuses of power. Tens of thousands have marched both in favour and against the government over this issue, with government supporters claiming it is a political attack by the judiciary. Romania is known to have a problem with corruption and is under special surveillance by EU bodies to ensure it does not backslide. The Romanian government may therefore soon come into conflict with the EU as it tries to pass new legislation to prevent further anti-corruption prosecutions.
Italy and France have been engaged in a war of words over migration. When Macron pointed to the sharp fall in arrivals from outside of Europe as showing that the emergency was over, the Italian populist leaders Di Maio and Salvini reacted angrily and attacked Macron for being arrogant. 16 countries will attend a mini-summit on migration to tackle these issues ahead of the full EU Council summit this month. Though the rhetoric has heated up, in practice there may be more agreement as Italy has still generally signalled that it wants a European solution to dealing with asylum seekers. Officially, the generally anti-migration governments of the Visegrad Group have stated they are boycotting the meeting, though it is not clear they were ever included in the first place and it seems unlikely they would oppose a European solution that toughened up the external border.
Spain is also among those countries committed to finding a European solution and demonstrated their solidarity this week, accepting the arrival of hundreds of asylum seekers that had been blocked from docking in either Italy or Malta and performing multiple rescue missions. After blocking the Aquarius, which was then given refuge by Spain, Italy and Malta have also turned away Lifeline, another rescue ship, whose fate remains uncertain. Spain, Italy, France and Malta are all key to resolving the problem of illegal migration along the EU's southern border, making some sort of agreement on a common system between these states to share the burden essential.
Merkel has been forced to meet a new challenge after anger from the CDU's more conservative sister party, the CSU. High-profile figures in the CSU have toughened up their language against asylum seekers and threatened to turn them away at the border. This dispute has, in turn, prompted a response from the Austrian leader, Sebastian Kurz, who has stated that he would reimpose border controls with Germany if the German authorities tried to send refugees back.
Finally, this week Estonia celebrated 100 years since its independence. The country declared independence from Russia in 1918 and after two years successfully defeated Soviet forces, supported by Latvia, the UK and anti-Bolshevik Russian forces.
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