Migration Policy Is Splitting Europe into EU East vs EU West

A week ago, Poland's Law and Justice party (PiS) won an election that puts it on a collision course with its key European Union allies. Led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland's late president, PiS secured sufficient votes to govern alone without having to form a coalition. Wary of the EU and an advocate of a strong NATO in dealing with Russia, PiS opposes joining the Eurozone and wants to enshrine more Roman Catholic values in Polish law, reflecting the party's deeply socially conservative stance. ~~~~~ As a result, Poland will join Hungary and Slovakia in opposing relocation of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, deepening divisions in the EU, where Germany's Angela Merkel advocates a more open approach. Kaczynski, much like Hungary's conservative Prime Minister Orban, has said Moslem migrants threaten Poland's Catholic way of life. The EU migrant crisis has led to increasing support for conservative parties in the EU, including Sweden and The Netherlands. "The victory by PiS is part of a wider shift in Europe, of a return to national values," according to analyst Aleksander Smolar. ~~~~~ The same day Polish voters elected the PiS, EU and Balkan leaders met in Brussels to agree on a plan to cooperatively manage migrant flows through the Balkans on the EU's southern border. The main points agreed are : (1) increase Greece reception capacity to 30,000 places by year's end, with the UN refugee agency providing rent subsidies and host family programs for 20,000 more people. (2) seek an additional 50,000 places capacity, for a total of 100,000 along the Balkans route and Greece. (3) step up efforts to return migrants not needing international protection, aiming for cooperative repatriation with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Pakistan. (4) scale up the Poseidon Sea Joint Operation in Greece, including EU border agency Frontex's presence in the Aegean Sea, and its support to Greece in registering and fingerprinting migrants. (5) refrain from waiving through migrants to the border of another EU country. (6) set up contact points for daily exchanges of information regarding migrant movements and size. (7) contact financial institutions to secure finances for housing refugees. (8) step up police and judicial cooperation against migrant smuggling, working with Europol and Interpol. (9) reinforce support of EU border agency Frontex at the Bulgaria-Turkey border, and set up a Frontex operation at the external land borders between Greece and Macedonia and Greece and Albania to make exit checks and register refugees not registered while in Greece. (10) work with Frontex to detect irregular border crossings and support registration with fingerprints in Croatia. ~~~~~ More than 9,000 migrants arrived in Greece every day in mid-October, the highest rate this year, with 157,000 migrants reaching Greek islands in October, and 60,000 reaching Slovenia. An estimated 650,000 migrants have arrived in the EU by sea so far this year. Smaller countries on the Balkan route say their resources are stretched by the migrants. Bottlenecks exist because Hungary closed its borders with Serbia and Croatia, forcing migrants to seek alternative routes north, aided by governments that help them move on to the next border. Before the Brussels meeting, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic dismissed requests to stop forwarding migrants. He and the Slovenian president said stricter restrictions on migrants moving from Turkey to Greece are needed. ~~~~~ Dear readers, while eastern EU states are in open revolt against EU migrant policy, Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem threatened them, saying they could see some of their EU subsidies cut if they refuse to take in refugees. Dijsselbloem said Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic should show something in return for Europe's "largesse." Largesse...??? Chancellor Merkel has called an EU agreement on taking in refugees "a litmus test." So far, the tests proposed by Merkel & Co. have failed. And it is not likely that threats will work.