The 52nd Munich Security Conference has just been completed and the topics that dominated this year’s conference were terrorism, the Middle East, and the refugee/migrant crisis.
Present were Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State and Defense from most advanced and developing countries, as well as representatives from leading think tanks and influential people like George Soros.
Greece was visibly absent from the conference, possibly because its government recognizes that the country has already lost its national sovereignty.
With regard to the refugee/migrant crisis, while the dignitaries from the different European countries were praising each other for the actions their respective governments had taken, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned that the crisis is here to stay.
“Sorry to say,” Gentiloni said, “but I think we are dealing with something permanent.”
Gentiloni pointed out that for years now large numbers of refugees crossing from North Africa have landed on Italy’s Mediterranean coast. He said all Europe could, and should do, was to try to better manage and reduce the number of people making their way to Europe.
Moreover, while all delegates seemed to be in agreement that trying to close Europe’s borders was not only wrong from a humanitarian perspective, but also practically impossible, the Italian foreign minister went against the grain again.
Not content to simply speak about “burden-sharing,” Gentiloni said that Europe should consider changing the Dublin rules. He was referring to the current European system that stipulates that refugees must seek asylum in the first EU country that they enter.
Gentiloni said such a system clearly put the burden on coastal countries such as Italy or Greece, was unsustainable and did not work.
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