Brussels, my love? Déjà vu – Europe’s migration muddle

Our guests this week were Lukas Mandl, Austrian MEP from the European People’s Party, Rebecca Christie, from the economic think tank Bruegel and Matteo Albania, from public affairs firm MUST & Partner. 

Panelists picked apart the EU’s response to the migration emergency on the island of Lampedusa. After the number of migrants outnumbered locals, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the island to tell local and national authorities that Europe had their back. 

But the response from capitals has been muted with ongoing disputes over how to agree on a migration pact that would set in stone a coordinated European response. The hope is to get the pact done and dusted by next April. The timetable was agreed last year between the European Parliament and EU rotating presidencies.

“I have a feeling of deja vu,” Matteo Albania told the panel, while Rebecca Christie said that “Europe is still uncomfortable with non-white immigration.”

Watch Brussels, my love? in the player above.