Commenting on the lack of new initiatives from the European Council to tackle the refugee crisis, Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, said: “EU leaders are completely failing to step up to the scale of the humanitarian crisis inside and outside the EU. It is deeply disappointing, and makes life more difficult for the refugees and communities struggling to host them, that our leaders have done little more than agree to carry out previous decisions.
“The European Commission’s latest proposals for a European Border and Coast Guard do not address the fundamental problems of an inadequate and unimplemented European plan for the redistribution of refugees to all EU Member States, and the absence of any acknowledgement of the need for fast integration of refugees into the labour market and society.
“Barriers are not a solution. Europe must welcome refugees in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility.”
