IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that the refugee crisis had pushed Europe to a “make-or-break” point and endangered the EU’s cherished passport-free Schengen area.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that the refugee crisis had pushed Europe to a “make-or-break” point and endangered the EU’s cherished passport-free Schengen area.
“The refugee crisis is a bit of a make or break, from my personal perspective,” Ms Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Asked if it put in peril Schengen, she said: “Yes, I think so.”
With more than one million migrants making their way to Europe in 2015 and more still trying now despite the winter weather, the issue has been a key theme of the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned on Thursday that the EU was in danger of “fracturing” over several issues, including the migrant influx.
Some observers believe the huge inflows of migrants means Europe needs to tighten its borders.
Meanwhile, Greece faced fresh pressure on Saturday on its handling of the migrant crisis after Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner warned that Athens faced “temporary exclusion” from the Schengen zone.
In midweek, Greece’s top migration official slammed a report in the Financial Times alleging several European ministers and senior EU officials believe threatening suspension from Schengen could persuade Greece to protect its borders more effectively.
Junior interior minister for migration Yiannis Mouzalas said the report contained “falsehoods and distortions” but Ms Mikl-Leitner said temporary exclusion was a real possibility. “If the Athens government does not... do more to secure the external borders then one must openly discuss Greece’s temporary exclusion from the Schengen zone,” Ms Mikl-Leitner said.
