EU could break up ‘within months,’ says Asselborn

By Ivo Oliveira

Luxembourg’s foreign minister has warned that the migration crisis and introduction of border controls between countries could lead to the collapse of the EU.
“The European Union can break apart. This can go incredibly fast, when isolation instead of solidarity becomes the rule internally and externally … We may have only a couple of months,” Jean Asselborn told the DPA news agency. Luxembourg holds the rotating presidency of the European Council.

He said the Schengen area of passport-free travel was under threat from the rise of national “solutions” to the migration crisis, and slammed far-right politicians who seek to make gains out of the crisis. “This false nationalism can lead to a real war,” Asselborn said.
EU officials have spent the past several weeks putting pressure on member countries to deliver on promises made to address the migration crisis, but “the risk [of Schengen coming to an end] is clearly there,” said Asselborn.
“If we do not find a European solution for the migration crisis, if more and more countries believe that they can approach the issue only nationally, then Schengen’s dead.”
Asselborn said that if Schengen falls, the “greatest achievement of the European Union also falls.” The introduction of border controls would affect “everything: workers, the economy, tourism.”