ENGAGEMENT, governance, stakeholder: the European Union is awash with abstract nouns that defy attempts to tether them to reality. Until recently “solidarity” fell into this category. At best it was deployed as code by politicians seeking money or other goodies from their peers. Greece’s increasingly baroque attempts to secure debt relief from its creditors, for example, are often shrouded in calls for solidarity. But deaths on one’s doorstep can concentrate minds. Last month, after over 800 migrants had drowned in the Mediterranean, the European Commission issued proposals to deal with the crisis. At their heart were two controversial suggestions: first, the relocation of 40,000 Eritrean and Syrian asylum-seekers arriving in Italy and Greece, which have been flooded with arrivals, across other EU countries; and second, the resettlement inside the EU of 20,000 refugees now outside its borders. Under both plans a “distribution key” allocates precise quotas of people to EU countries, taking into account population, GDP, unemployment and previous resettlement efforts. Crucially, the commission wants the relocation plan to be mandatory (...
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