EU leaders are meeting to discuss the migration and refugee crisis in Brussels. They will also debate the setting up of hot spots in Greece and Italy for identifying and registering migrants. The topics of the EU summit also include the current state of measures for fighting terrorism. The Visegrad Four countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) want the Energy Union to be included as one of the topics of the summit.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is attending the final EU summit of 2015, which is being held on December 17-18 in Brussels. Ahead of the meeting he deemed it shocking that it's only now that the protection of Schengen area borders is coming up for debate. "There's incontrovertible evidence that some countries have failed completely on this (border protection)," Fico said before the EU summit. He embraced the fact that the issue is gaining prominence now, but considers it to be a huge failure that the EU has found itself in such a situation.
Ahead of the summit, Prime Minister Robert Fico also said that Slovakia wouldn't be one of the countries to voluntarily admit people who've been granted 'refugee' status in Turkey. A recommendation for EU countries to take in people displaced by the conflict in Syria to Turkey was brought forward by the European Commission earlier this week. Robert Fico said that each country has different capacities, and recognised voluntariness as the best approach. Slovakia has been working with Austria on a voluntary basis by temporarily taking in nearly 500 asylum seekers, and has admitted 149 Assyrian Christians from Iraq for permanent resettlement in Slovakia. "If any member country decides that based on the voluntary principle they will accept migrants from Turkey, it's their sovereign decision. Slovakia won't be such a country," said Robert Fico.
In addition to migration, the Energy Union is set to be the second major topic of the summit. Robert Fico rejoiced at the fact that the initiative has been included in the summit's agenda thanks to efforts of the Visegrad Four countries. The V4 is against increasing the capacity of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The new pipeline would bypass Slovakia as well as Ukraine and wouldn't comply with the principle of diversifying routes. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi also recently opposed the Nord Stream 2 project, which may complicate the boosting of economic sanctions against Russia.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has signed an agreement on expanding the current Nord Stream pipeline with several western companies. Critics also point to the fact that the current Nord Stream gas pipeline can operate only at 50 percent due to EU rules on economic competition. In this case, expanding its capacity is pointless. It only suggests a Russian attempt to strip Ukraine of its status of being the most important gas transit country.
Other topics of the last EU summit in 2015 include the upcoming British referendum on whether to remain in the EU and a related package of EU reforms. Among the most contentious demands are cuts in social welfare payments and the restriction of free movement of people to Britain. The current session of the European Council is supposed to address all political dilemmas so that a concrete proposal can be ready as of February.
