Evangelos Venizelos – Greece and the Refugee Crisis

In 2016, the EU's main challenge has been the management of the refugee and migration flows entering the Union from Turkey through the gateway of the Greek maritime borders in the Aegean Sea. The main element in this challenge is the conflict between European integration and the sovereignty of Member States. The Member States claim for the expression of European solidarity and support guarding borders as the borders of the EU. But it is obvious that when the arrangements at the EU level are not proven effective, Member States exercises their sovereignty. Under this view, the most simple, practical and highly symbolic measure is the imposition of internal (national) border controls (which are provided in certain cases by the Schengen Treaty). In this case, guarding the external maritime borders of the EU and the effective collaboration with critical neighboring countries, like Turkey, became an issue within NATO's competence and mission, so as to demonstrate that European safety is, already from the last phase of the First World War and obviously from the beginning of the Cold War, a Euro-Atlantic issue. All these circumstances pose the fundamental question of whether the nation state is the most effective crisis manager. The elements that constitute the historical and institutional composition of the state, statehood and sovereignty, are challenged at both levels: the Member State and the Union. This is the fundamental contradiction of Europe; nevertheless, this can also be its major advantage if it leads to the adoption of flexible and creative methods that ensure the prospect of European integration.

Evangelos Venizelos is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Greece. He currently serves as MP and Vice Chairperson of the Socialist Group in the Council of Europe.