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European Commission

Chair: Aleksandar Vladicic Director: Rafail Zoulis

European Commission PMUNC 2016

Contents

Letter from the Chair…….………………………...……………………...…..3

Introduction……………………………….…….....……………..….…..……5

Topic A: The Migrant Crisis……………….…….....……………..….…..……6

Topic B: Terrorist Attacks in Europe……………….....………….…………...7

Topic C: Xenophobia and Brexit……...…………….....………….……….…..8

Positions……………………………...…………….....………….……...……9

2 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Letter from the Chair

Dear Delegates,

I’m very excited to welcome you to PMUNC 2016! My name is Aleksandar Vladicic and I will be your chair for the crisis committee. I’m a sophomore at

Princeton majoring in Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and am especially interested in diplomacy, peacebuilding and integration, and the politics of development.

This will be my fourth year of MUN and my second PMUNC. Last year at PMUNC,

I served as a director for the Napoleonic Wars crisis committee. Alongside me this year is

Rafail Zoulis who will be our crisis director for the European Council committee. I always enjoy running crisis, but this committee will definitely be a very special experience as we will be engaging in a discussion on a range of contemporary and challenging pressures the

European Union faces in the twenty-first century. As a committee, we will try to provide solutions to both internal and external difficulties that shook Europe in the past couple of years.

A sudden influx of refugees and migrants into the EU have exposed the ineffectiveness of existing regulations and exhibits European divisiveness in the response to an escalating crisis. Migration was gradually slowing down over the course of the past couple of months, but what remains to be further addressed are the nature and length of the granted asylums for the people who immigrated, the agreement on how to respond effectively to migrant crisis on the national level, and how to cooperatively show support to those who are forced to seek for a new home in the EU.

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During the migrant crisis, Europe witnessed rising power of populist parties, increased presence of Euroscepticism and growing xenophobia across the continent. Several countries expressed their concerns for the current state of affairs and advocated for stronger cooperation and solidarity. However, in July 2016, the UK Prime David Cameron stepped down after the referendum when a majority of the UK citizens voted “leave”.

Rising number of terrorist attacks and shootings all over the world was repeatedly mentioned in relation to the migrant crisis. As part of the migration policy, but on a general defense and security platforms as well, the EU is determined to improve its commitment to ensuring the security of its borders, and to creating strategies for providing immediate and effective response to the attacks.

Current state of affairs might not seem very promising, but our committee of the

European Council will come together to address most importantly: dealing with migrants and refugees, rising Euroscepticism, and the response to terrorist attacks in the EU!

I am very much looking to meeting you all this fall!

Aleksandar Vladicic

4 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Introduction

Welcome to the European Council (EC) crisis committee! The European Council is an official institution of the (EU) that comprises the heads of states of the

28 EU Member States (MS), the President of the European Commission, and the President of the European Council. While the legislative power in the EU is entrusted to the European

Commission, the European Council defines the EU’s overall political direction and priorities. The European Council functions by adopting conclusions which “identify specific issues of concern and outline particular actions to take or goals to reach.”

At the Council meeting in 2014, the European Council set five priority areas to work on over the next five years and those include: 1) jobs, growth and competitiveness, 2) empowering and protecting citizens, 3) energy and climate policies, 4) freedom, security and justice, 5) the EU as a strong global actor; and has determined specific goals to reach within each category.1 To better understand how the EC conclusions look like, you may read or skim through the Strategic agenda of the EU from 2014: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2079%202014%20INIT#page

=15

However, amid the turmoil of the recent terrorist attacks, a significant migrant crisis and the British vote to exit , the European Council might have to reconsider its agenda and sort its priorities. Even though the European Council itself does not directly function as a crisis-addressing body, we will try to consolidate from one hand, the diversity in opinions, actions and experience each MS has on the numerous issues we will address and on the other, the excitement of the MUN crisis and debate. This committee is called on

1 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/european-council/role-setting-eu-political-agenda/

5 European Commission PMUNC 2016 behalf of the current President of the EU who will chair the meeting in Justus

Lipsius building in Brussels on July 15, 2016, just after Theresa May was announced the next

Prime Minister of the .

We will be briefly covering the important topics for this committee. However, we encourage you to peruse current events in order to have the best idea for the daily goings-on of Europe. The focus of this committee is primarily on migrants and their many facets – the economic considerations, the security ones and even the political ones. We will also devote much of our attention to understanding the background of the leaders assembled, their domestic situations and hope to illustrate the positions and beliefs they would bring to the table for a variety of issues. In this way, we hope you gain a deeper understanding of motives of the actors, rather than attempting to explain the inexhaustible list of issues plaguing

Europe today.

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The Migrant Crisis

“According to Eurostat, EU MS received over 1.2 million first time asylum applications in 2015, a number more than double that of the previous year.2 Four states

(, Hungary, , and ) received around two-thirds of the EU's asylum applications in 2015, with Hungary, Sweden, and Austria being the top recipients of asylum applications per capita.3 The main countries of citizenship of asylum seekers, accounting for more than half of the total, were Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.”4 An issue of concern from the very beginning of the crisis was where exactly within the borders of the EU the refugees will settle once they cross the border of one of the MS.

Laws

There are two agreements most relevant to the issue at hand. The first is the

Schengen Agreement which abolishes the border checks internally between the 26 signatories.5 In the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks, nationalists raise it as an example of a failed European policy, pointing to how terrorists can easily move across borders to attack another country.6 In recent months, border controls have become more stringent in the

Schengen Zone, and checks within the Schengen border have also become more common.7

The second relevant agreement is the Lisbon Treaty, which established a uniform policy for asylum in the European Union, as well as greatly strengthening the EU’s power to regulate

2 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/7203832/3-04032016-AP-EN.pdf/790eba01-381c-4163- bcd2-a54959b99ed6 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13194723 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.

7 European Commission PMUNC 2016 immigration.8 With its expanded mandate, the EU’s decisions can no longer be vetoed by individual member states, and can decide the rights of migrants within the EU including to enter and exit.9 These changes have led to the III Regulation.

Dublin III gives member states the ability to send a migrant refugee back to the first country the refugee entered.10 However, what this does is put an extra burden on border countries where migrants are most likely to enter. A Syrian refugee that first enters Europe through Hungary, is fingerprinted there, but makes it to Norway eventually can be sent back to Hungary by the Norwegian government. A plan to have a relocation ‘quota’ where a plan to share the 160,000 or so asylum seekers has thus far proved to see little progress; only

4,200 spots have volunteered.

On 24 August 2015, according to article 17 of the Dublin III Regulations, Germany decided to suspend the Dublin procedure as regards Syrian refugees and to process their asylum applications directly itself.11 However, some countries were reluctant to welcome the refugees and started calling on the Agreement, comparing the numbers of refugees granted asylum to other MS, or building walls and fences in order to disable the refugees from crossing their national border. This council will address the pressing need to redefine the current policy by maximizing the benefits to the EU as a whole, without harming the basic human rights of the refugees or the national interests of specific MS.

8 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_5.12.2.html 9 Ibid. 10 https://www.ft.com/content/d08dc262-bed1-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2 11 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-opens-its-gates--says-all-syrian-asylum- seekers-are-welcome-to-remain-as-britain-is-10470062.html

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Economic Consequences

There is certainly a mixed narrative when it comes to refugees’ economic impact on

Europe. Studies show that immigration only have a small impact on wages; unskilled workers are most vulnerable but there is only about a 2% depression in wages for menial positions for a 10% rise in share of migrant workers.12 Such numbers should suggest that there is not much to fret. Indeed, there is also research by Foged and Peri that shows that these migrant workers eventually move up, switching to jobs with higher salaries that involve less manual labor.13 Such evidence would show that there are positive effects to migration and that these migrants are rather hard working.

However, other research shows that migrants will receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes for the first 15-20 years.14 Therefore, it is not a short run benefit to national budgets. Despite all that though, the IMF estimates that refugees will add only 0.19% of

GDP to public expenditure in the EU; in Germany, who has received far more refugees, this number is only 0.35%.15 Therefore, the macroscopic impact seems to be bearable.

There is, however, a divergence when it comes to popular opinion. 82% of those in

Hungary said that refugees are a burden due to taking of jobs and benefits; 75% of those in

Poland and 72% of those in Greece suggested the same.16 Countries that see fewer migrants, like the Netherlands, have commensurately lower beliefs of refugees’ burdensomeness; still this number is in the 40%’s.17 Germany, however, is a notable exception in that it bears a large refugee burden, but its population only has only 31% of the population believe this, the

12 http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21688938-europes-new-arrivals-will-probably- dent-public-finances-not-wages-good-or 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 16 http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/07/11/europeans-fear-wave-of-refugees-will-mean-more-terrorism-fewer- jobs/ 17 Ibid.

9 European Commission PMUNC 2016 lowest in the survey.18 These high numbers suggest that there is a backlash against migrants, and those near the border are increasingly unwilling to have more visitors.

Terrorism

A series of recent terrorist attacks in the EU got people from all of the MS worried about their safety and protection. The bombings in Brussels in March 2016 brought 32 deaths and wounded more than 300 other victims in a day of horror.19 Two suicide bombings occurred at Brussels Airport and another bombing at a Metro station happened in succession.20 A series of terrifying attacks in Paris killed 130 victims and injured hundreds of others.21 Gunmen and bombers hit a concert hall, a stadium, and other entertainment venues like bars and restaurants just moments apart in three coordinated teams.22 “1077 people were arrested in the EU for terrorism-related offences last year alone, almost half of which took place in France (424).”23

Concerns about the terrorist attacks from all over France, Belgium and the rest of the MS appear to be related to the migrant crisis and the rising number of Muslims in

Europe. Many, including , condemned Merkel’s migrant-welcoming policies for being responsible for the rising threat and insecurity on the continent.24 In Hungary, 76% of

18 Ibid. 19 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35869985 20 Ibid. 21 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34818994 22 Ibid. 23 http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/terrorist-attacks-in-europe-this-is-how-dangerous-it-has- become/news-story/6698f619b28445b9da4ebd763b27e115 24 http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/695580/Angela-Merkel-open-door-Poland-Germans-migrant-crisis- Europe-dead-Jacek-Wrona

10 European Commission PMUNC 2016 those polled by Pew said that refugees increased the likelihood of terrorism; in Poland it is

71%; across Europe, the median was 59%.25

Such insecurity and fear only aggravate current economic hardships that the EU faces, especially in the fields of trade and tourism. Reuters further reported that an increasing number of people from the EU MS are turning to firearms and other self-defense weapons to protect themselves. It is on us to create a responsive and thorough agenda which will answer the needs of the people of the MS, make sure our response to any future threats or attacks is adequate and functional, and make people feel more secure in their respective states.

Xenophobia

Especially after the migrant crisis and terrorist attacks in the EU, a rising number of right- wing parties and ideas has spread across the continent, usually opposing the current governments and offering more radical solutions to the issues Europe faces at this time. Those parties and ideas sometimes directly or indirectly oppose the welcoming attitude of some Europeans toward Muslim immigrants and are targeting and stigmatizing Muslims and their religion. "There is an especial problem with some of the people who’ve come here and who are of the Muslim religion who don’t want to become part of our culture," said the leader of the UK Independence party and one of the key figures who advocated for Brexit Nigel Farage in an interview from 2015.26 What exactly led to the UK voting to leave the EU on the referendum is still debatable, but the “Leave” campaign

“effectively stoked fears of an immigrant influx to garner support, and the baiting of refugees was

25 http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/07/11/europeans-fear-wave-of-refugees-will-mean-more-terrorism-fewer- jobs/ 26 http://www.vox.com/2016/6/23/12005814/brexit-eu-referendum-immigrants

11 European Commission PMUNC 2016 further fanned by concerns about terrorism, the influential eurosceptic press and by the far-right, which attributed Britain’s economic problems to immigration”, reported the NY Times.27

Such xenophobia and the lack of tolerance are opposed to the primary human rights values, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stressed that those who don't talk about the benefits of immigration but instead "stir up public opinion against refugees and migrants have a responsibility in creating a climate of xenophobia that is very worrying in today's Europe.28

How will the Union proceed without the UK and how is this secession going to take place at first?

Will the EU let the rising xenophobia take over the whole continent and how will this body respond to it?

27 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/world/europe/as-migrants-face-abuse-fear-that-brexit-has- given-license-to-xenophobia.html?_r=0 28 https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/‘climate-xenophobia’-grips-europe-world-refugee-day

12 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Positions

Disclaimer: As the delegates serve as the leaders of EU Member States, they are responsible of and have power over their respective governments, that includes the security forces, national security and immigration policy, and legislature. This power, however, could prove both beneficial and detrimental, since the decision of its individual state will have an impact and finally shape the overall discussion on the European Union level.

Jean-Claude Juncker – President of the European Union:

Jean Claude Juncker, a Luxembourgish politician, is the President of the European

Commission. After serving as Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1989 until 2009, Mr.

Junker became the candidate of the European’s People Party (EPP), the center-right and biggest party in the , for the EU’s top job and succeeded in securing the position in 2014. His appointment, however, did not lack controversy. President believes fervently in the Schengen free movement area and in federalism, the idea that the

EU should become a stronger Union via the transfer of powers from national parliaments to

European institutions. This stance has consistently caused some problems with certain

Member States, like Great Britain and Hungary, and his critics say that his actions directly impacted Brexit. Moreover, the President of the Commission has taken a firm stance against the rise of far-right parties in many European Member States. Nevertheless, Mr. Junker has friends and power in the EU, especially with his hold over the European Commission, the branch of the Union.

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Angela Merkel – of Germany:

Angela Dorothea Merkel, a former research scientist, serves as the Chancellor of

Germany. After securing the leadership of her center-right party, the Christian Democratic

Union (CDU), Merkel became the Chancellor in 2005, a position she still holds.

Undoubtedly, she played a crucial role in overcoming the with her continuous calls for austerity and public funding cuts. This stance, however, has caused her unpopularity and distrust for Germany in the European South, which faces unemployment and big government deficits. The Chancellor, also faces considerable criticism from groups in Germany, especially concerning her “open-door” policy towards the growing number of

Syrian refugees. Despite stricter measures put in place after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in , her critics say that Merkel’s leniency towards refugees and her belief in a common European solution, as evident by the deal with Turkey, exacerbate the crisis.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the leader of the European Union, as many calls her, has always in mind the 2017 federal and the rise of the far- right party Alternative Fur Deutschland (AfD).

François Hollande – :

François Hollande, a former advisor to the legendary President Mitterrand, serves as the

President of the French Republic. He heads the French center- party, the , and became President in 2012. He supports moderate economic reforms across Europe and has consistently maintained a strong position in favor of the of the Union and the

Eurozone. Moreover, Hollande faces increasing problems in France: The large minority of

Muslims, which resists to assimilation, alongside with the so-called “Calais Jungle” are seen by many as the source of unemployment and crime as well as a corrupting force against the

14 European Commission PMUNC 2016 fervent secularism of the French state, which is one of the few countries in Europe that have banned face-covering veils, such as the niquab, in all public areas. The French president had also to grabble with a large amount of terrorist attacks in the past two years, with the biggest being the attack on Charlie Hebdo (January 2015) and in Paris (November 2015). These two factors have also caused the dramatic rise of the far-right National Front of Marie Le Pen, who calls for referendum on France’s position in the European Union after the Brexit result.

Matteo Renzi - Prime Minister of :

Matteo Renzi serves as the . He is the leader of the Democratic

Party, Italy’s main center-left party, and became Prime Minister in 2014. Immensely popular in Italy, Renzi has called for an end in austerity and has consistently supported the resolution of problems with common European solutions. Italy’s Prime Minister, however, faces considerable pressure from the growing number of refugees and immigrants coming by see from North Africa and especially from Libya, after the country was left in political turmoil due to the Libyan Civil War and the emergence of Islamic terrorist groups in the region.

Renzi has gone to considerable lengths in both preventing the refugees from living Africa as well as avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe, such as the 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck, when more than 360 refugees died. He is also one of the main advocates for the mandatory quotas for refugees around the EU. Finally, the Italian Prime Minister is concerned by the tremendous rise of the far-right party, , which has a Eurosceptic agenda and calls for stricter measures against immigration from the Muslim countries, so as to safeguard the

“Christian identity” of Italy and Europe.

Theresa May – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

15 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Theresa May, the former Home Secretary, serves as the Prime Minister of the United

Kingdom. Following Great Britain’s momentous decision to leave the European Union in the 2016 June referendum and David Cameron’s commitment to step down from his role as

PM, May won a short race for the leadership of the Conservative Party, the UK’s center- right party, and subsequently her country’s top job. While her broader political views are large unknown, she vowed to respect the people’s Brexit vote, but she has not announced any specific timeline. Taking into account that immigration played a large role in the referendum decision, political analysts expect that May will be strict on immigration and safety. She has also to deal with the emergence of far-right voices in her own party as well as other far-right political entities, such as the Ukip of Nigel Farage and the xenophobic Britain

First party. Moreover, many in the UK call to her to confront the rising anti-immigrant racist incidents that followed the referendum as well as the heal the wounds from the long campaign.

Charles Michel – Prime Minister of Belgium:

Charles Michel serves as the Prime Minister of Belgium. Michel, a member of the conservative-liberal Reformist Movement, leads a four party governmental coalition since

2014. His center-right coalition has promoted austerity measures in order to enhance the economy’s competitiveness. The biggest concern, however, is the constant terrorist threat over the country. After the 2016 Brussels’ bombings, in which 32 civilians died and 300 were injured, many political analysist pint-point Belgium’s inadequate security system especially due to lack of communication among the different-language-speaking parts of the country.

As a result, Michel is expected to call for stricter security checks for incoming refugees as well as strengthening the European security mechanism.

16 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Christian Kern – :

Christian Kern serves as the Chancellor of Austria. He leads the Social Democratic

Party, Austrian center-left party, and was sworn Chancellor on 17 May 2016. Having served as the CEO of the Austrian Federal Railways, when he organized the transfer of thousand refugees through the “Balkan Route” from Austria to Germany, Kern is familiar with the incoming numbers of refugees. His government have vowed to continue a humane treatment of refugees by safeguarding their rights and organizing integration programs, while maintaining security and order. He is also thought to be a close ally and friend of Angela

Merkel, the German Chancellor, with whom he agrees on the protection of the Schengen free travel area as well as the calls for European cooperation.

Viktor Orbán – Prime Minister of Hungary:

Viktor Orbán serves as the Prime Minister of Hungary. After becoming the leader of the center-right Fidezs Party, Orbán won the parliamentary elections in both 2009 and 2014.

Under his leadership, his party and the country as a whole shifted from traditional liberalism to conservativism, protectionism and soft Euroscepticism. He is famous for desiring to construct an “illiberal state” as well as a strong national identity, in which the community rather the individual is the basic social unit. Following these views, Orbán personally opposes any obligatory quotas for refugees imposed by the EU and has taken a firm stance on security by building fences on Hungary’s southern borders. The severity and intensity of his anti-immigration measures have been widely criticized by both Hungarian and European officials, with some NGOs calling him “authoritarian” and “dictator”. Moreover, his

17 European Commission PMUNC 2016 government supports closer cooperation in matters of security, as expressed by sending police officers to aid FYROM’s police in its border with Greece.

Beata Szydlo – :

Beata Szydlo serves as the Prime Minister of Poland. After helping her party secure the country’s , Szydlo become Prime Minister in 2015. She is the vice-chair of the Law and Justice Party, the right-wing national-conservative party of Poland. She leads a pro- business agenda with strong views on social cohesion and national sovereignty. Similar to the leaders of the other Visegrád countries, Szydlo opposes any settlement and reallocation of refugees inside Polish borders as well as any attempts for a more federal European Union.

Moreover, Szydlo’s government has been a close ally to the United Kingdom in the EU.

Notable, her party’s European parliamentarians sit together with their UK conservative colleagues in the Union’s Parliament. Thus, analysts predict that they will try to maintain a close association with the UK even after Brexit while forming with them a common agenda on security and immigration.

Alexis Tsipras – :

Alexis Tsipras serves as the Prime Minister of Greece. After winning two parliamentary elections and an anti-austerity referendum in 2015, Tsipras leads the far-left Syriza party and

Greece through tough economic times. Being the gateway into Europe, Greece has experienced an increasing amount of refugees crossing from the shores of Turkey to its island in make shifts boats. While his government tries to accommodate the situation, the number of immigrants trapped inside Greece’s borders has surpassed the 50,000. In order to

18 European Commission PMUNC 2016 mitigate the crisis, Tsipras has continuously called for a European solution through the obligatory quotas system and asked the help of NATO and FRONTEX to help securing the borders. Critics of Greece’s Prime Minister say that he has failed to secure the sea borders as well as correctly process the incoming refugees with background checks so as to safeguard the security of the Member States. Fortunately, in the past few months, the deal with Turkey has stopped the mass flows but the situation remains precarious in an increasingly unstable region.

Dalia Grybauskaitė – President of Lithuania:

Dalia Grybauskaitė serves as the president of Lithuania. Being the first female President and the only President to be reelected for a second term, Grybauskaitė holds the position since 2009. Due to her time as a European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget (2004-2009), Lithuania’s President is well-versed and connected with the political apparatus in the European Union. She is also a firm proponent of the the new Member

States in the Union and, in face a growing aggression from Russia, she supports closer

European ties when it comes to security and border protection. Grybauskaitė, however, is always concerned with the formation of a national civic identity for her citizens and thus holds moderate views on immigration.

Mariano Rajoy – Prime Minister of :

Mariano Rajoy serves as the . After becoming the leader of the center-right People’s Party, Rajoy won the elections in 2011, in a time of financial and social upheaval for Spain. However, since the 2015 elections and the inability of any party to form a government, Rajoy maintains the post as a caretaker Prime Minister. Having faced a great

19 European Commission PMUNC 2016 amount of immigrants coming from Africa, he is a strong proponent of the idea that immigration is a European rather than a national problem and thus EU-wide solutions should be found. Moreover, Rajoy was a prominent political figure in the 2004 Al-Qaeda affiliated bombings in and thus supports stronger European cooperation for border protection and screenings.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen – Prime Minister of Denmark:

Lars Løkke Rasmussen serves as the Danish Prime Minister. After winning the June

2015 elections, Rasmussen returned to the top job of his country as the candidate of the center-right liberal Vestre party. Despite the generally quite political life, the Prime Minister is under heavy criticism due to the increasing amount of asylum seekers since 2010.

Moreover, Denmark is located between the two most popular destinations for refugees,

Germany and Sweden, and thus serves as the natural path between the two. This situation has prompted, Rasmussen, who is in a with far-right Danish People’s

Party, to take severe measure against immigration. Most notably, he has ordered the authorities to confiscate any asset the immigrants carry above $ 1,450 in order to pay for their accommodation, while his policies focus more on repatriation rather than assimilation.

Stefan Löfven – :

Stefan Löfven serves as the Swedish Prime Minister. After becoming the leader of the center-left Social Democrats in 2012, Löfven leads a minority government with the Greens since 2014. He is a firm supporter of a European solution in the immigration crisis and he fervently maintains pro-immigration policies in Sweden. Most notably, he simplified the procedures for temporary residence permit as well as family reunifications, while he forced

20 European Commission PMUNC 2016 by law the provinces of Sweden to accept quotas of refuges. However, after the Paris attacks in November 2015, Löfven’s decision to reinstitute border controls in the Danish-Swedish border sparked controversy since it called into question both the Schengen and the Nordic

Passport Union. Nevertheless, the Swedish Prime Minister remains one of the most fervent supporters of immigration and closer European cooperation.

Enda Kenny – of Ireland:

Enda Kenny serves as the Irish Taoiseach. He is the leader of the liberal-conservative

Fine Gael party since 2002 and Taoiseach since 2011. He has consistently voiced a supportive attitude towards refugees and has measures to ensure that a number of them would be relocated on Irish soil. However, after the chain of the terrorist attacks in Europe,

Kenny has called for the European Union and the states in its periphery to strengthen border controls and background checks to the incoming refugees. Moreover, the recent vote of the United Kingdom to leave the EU has sparked great concern in the Irish government regarding the Irish-British border and the reposition of border controls in a region that has seen considerable violence up until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Nicos Anastasiades – President of :

Nicos Anastasiades serves of the Cyprian President. After serving the center-right

Democratic rally, Anastasiades become President in 2013. While coping with the difficult financial situation, the Cyprian President has revived serious negotiations for the unification of the island that remains split since the Turkish invasion of 1974. Moreover, Anastasiades is a firm supporter of European solution in matters of both immigration and security, while he maintains a close diplomatic relation with the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras.

21 European Commission PMUNC 2016

Furthermore, Anastasiades continues to have a reluctant view regarding the EU-Turkey refugee agreement and believes that the should be resolved before any serious EU annexation talks for Turkey could begin.

Bohuslav Sobotka – Prime Minister of the :

Bohuslav Sobotka serves as the Czech Prime Minister. After becoming the leader of the center-left Social in 2010, Sobotka become Prime Minister in 2014.

Amidst the heightening of the refugee crisis, Sobotka’s government supported European cooperation in both the immigration crisis and border security. However, Sobotka fervently refused the imposition of obligatory quotas for refugees around Europe, arguing instead that the best solution should be providing relief in camps and hot-spots that are close to their original residence, be that in Turkey or in the EU Member States. He also has to face increasing far-right sentiments expressed by a number of organizations, such as the Anti-

Islamic Bloc, that in 2015 protested in the streets of Prague carrying gallows and nooses.

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