German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday Europe needs to rewrite its "obsolete" asylum rules to tackle the migrant crisis as European warships went into action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean. Merkel made the call in a speech with French President Francois Hollande to the European Parliament - the first such joint address since the fall of the Berlin Wall - in which they urged the increasingly divided EU to unite to tackle a wave of problems including migration and the war in Syria.
"Let's be frank. The Dublin process, in its current form, is obsolete," Merkel said.
The process, which forces frontline states like Italy and Greece to process and welcome most migrants, "started from good intentions... but the challenges raised at our borders are from now on untenable," Merkel said. "I appeal for a new procedure" to redistribute asylum seekers "fairly" throughout the 28-nation bloc, the chancellor said.
Merkel added: "It is exactly now that we need more Europe. We need courage and cohesion, which Europe has always shown when it was necessary." Hollande warned of the risk of returning to national frontiers, the dismantling of common policies and the abandoning of the euro. "We need not less Europe but more Europe. Europe must affirm itself otherwise we will see the end of Europe, our demise," Hollande told lawmakers.
The French leader meanwhile admitted that the EU had reacted too slowly to the turmoil on its borders since the Arab Spring in 2011, which had produced the huge wave of refugees seeking a better life in Europe. Meanwhile the EU formally launched "Operation Sophia" which gives European naval vessels in international waters off Libya the power to stop, board, seize and destroy people traffickers' boats. Around 3,000 people have died making the perilous crossing over the Mediterranean to Europe this year.
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