Bloomberg Editorial: UK and Europe Must Collaborate on Migrants

Two weeks have passed since a group of 27 immigrants died trying to reach the UK from France when their boat capsized in the English Channel. Far from coming together to face the crisis they share, both countries have since dedicated themselves to blaming each other, exchanging insults and ignoring much-needed reforms. If you want to prevent the next tragedy, sanity must quickly prevail.

Following the fatal accident on November 24, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent French President Emmanuel Macron a letter – and more comments on Twitter – declaring, among other things, that migrants who arriving in the UK from France were the responsibility of France and had to be promptly returned.

Macron was offended by both the form and the substance, and withdrew an invitation for a British official to join the talks on the issue. Later, French ministers declared that migration was “first of all an english problem“And accused Great Britain of tolerating a”modern slavery”.

The expletives aside, the dispute combines two flaws.

The first is the lack of an effective joint policy on immigrants between the European Union and its neighbors. The so-called Dublin Convention (which, after Brexit, no longer binds the UK) allocates the processing of asylum applications to the country where migrants first arrive, but the EU has not yet created a system to make this stipulation work. , one that equitably shares the costs of protecting borders and accepting skilled migrants.

Britain is no longer a member of the EU, but says it wants to be a partner anyway. In that case, you should be fully involved in efforts to meet the challenge. EU ministers say they want a deal and the UK should want the same. The starting point for negotiations cannot be: “It has nothing to do with us”.

The second flaw is the apparent determination, on both sides, to make Brexit an even bigger mess than necessary. Britain’s decision to leave the EU was a serious mistake from the start, but the two sides can still choose, as a matter of long-term mutual interest, to make the best of it or, as a matter of short-term political self-interest. , make the situation worse.

Sadly, the recent attitude of Johnson and Macron suggests that they both prefer the latter. They seem to agree that there is no middle ground between being a full member of the EU, with all its obligations and privileges, and being completely separate. This is not how a pragmatic alliance should work.

Dealing with immigrants is just one of many areas where the UK and the EU need to work more closely together. The sooner both parties realize this, the better.