These are major challenges that the European Union and each Member State, first and foremost France, must tackle head-on:
– 650 migrants intercepted or rescued at sea this weekend in Tunisia. A quarantine blocked at the Greek-Turkish border. Three dead and 45 survivors off the Canary Islands.
– 86% increase in the number of irregular entries in the first half compared to last year, according to Frontex.
– To migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, warns someone close to the case, will be added those fleeing climate change.
– But also starvation. The blocking of cereals, a direct consequence of the war in Ukraine, will precipitate the movement. The first corn and wheat ships that have left Ukrainian ports, after the fragile agreement signed under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, will not be enough to meet demand. We are facing an absolute emergency.
Thierry Breton may want to be reassuring: “Gas reserves for the winter are higher than last year”, recalls the European Commissioner for the Internal Market. But the 27 “must prepare for the worst”if Russia closes the gas tap, warns the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
If the winter proves to be too harsh, as was this scorching summer, will we be able to cope? wonders a specialist in the matter within the majority, who adds that Europe must lay the foundations of its energy security, collectively, an allusion to Hungary which ended up buying Russian gas, a stab in the the back of the Union.
Europe will have to learn to deal with the new challenges it faces. She was able to do this with vaccines, during the Covid crisis, or with support and arms deliveries to Ukraine against Putin’s Russia.
The parenthesis of the French presidency of the Union has closed, quickly relegated to the background by the presidential election. Even if Emmanuel Macron’s commitment has been hailed by his European partners, Putin’s war in Ukraine will have taken everything, upsetting the agendas and throwing these 27 members of the Union, who are so often cautious or even disunited, into the very front line.
Faced with these major challenges, Europe is therefore condemned to act together if it does not want to disappear one day.