Eurogroup chief warns of ‘mini-Schengen’

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned on Friday that a small group of EU countries may be forced to form a “mini-Schengen” if the bloc fails to resolve its migrant crisis.

“I really don’t wish to have that. Such a step would have negative political and economic conseque-nces for us all,” he told German business newspaper Handelsblatt of the possibility of reducing the 26-member passport-free Sche-ngen zone to a core group of just five or six countries.

But Mr Dijsselbloem argued that “we cannot maintain our social welfare state in the long term if the influx of asylum seekers goes on like that”.

Urging member states to shoulder their fair share of the migrant burden, Mr Dijsselbloem warned: “If the EU fails to better secure its external borders, then a smaller group of countries will do so. Because we must protect our society and our high social standards.”

“Then that could be a mini-Schengen, even if that’s without a doubt not the best solution,” warned Mr Dijsselbloem.

Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has warned that Europe risks collapsing like the Roman Empire over the refugee crisis, according to the Financial Times, as his country gears up to be the next EU president.

“The first step is to make sure the border is controlled. As we all know from the Roman Empire, big empires go down if the borders are not well protected,” Mr Rutte said, quoted by the Financial Times late Thursday.

Mr Rutte was speaking to a small group of reporters invited to travel from Brussels to his office in The Hague as the Netherlands prepares to takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on January 1.

The Dutch government has made the refugee crisis one of the top priorities of its presidency. “We need to stem the flow of migrants coming to Europe. We can’t continue at the present level,” Mr Rutte added in the interview, according to the online EUObserver daily.