Decision-making procedures on refugees can be significantly accelerated by changing the German Constitution, said European Commissioner for Energy Günter Oettinger. The amendments will allow refugees from safe countries to be rejected more quickly

A Syrian woman cries at a refugee registration center on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany (Photo: REUTERS 2015)

To speed up the resolution of the refugee crisis, it is necessary to amend the German Constitution, says European Commissioner for Energy Günter Oettinger, writes Die Welt . In his opinion, the constitutional amendment will make it possible to quickly refuse refugees from so-called safe countries and send them back.

Decision-making procedures on refugees should be accelerated, says a politician representing the CDU party, which is part of the ruling bloc. “The Basic Law could be changed so that asylum decision-making procedures would be much faster than before,” the politician said.

The flow of refugees to developed countries of Europe, primarily to Germany, currently consists not only of immigrants from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, where a military conflict broke out related to the terrorist group “Islamic State” (its activities are prohibited in Russia). Citizens of Balkan countries, including Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, are also seeking refugee status. However, German authorities believe that they have much less reason to be considered refugees, since they are not threatened with political repression and there is no fighting on the territory of their countries.

In addition, Oettinger advocated giving smaller European countries that have little experience in accepting refugees more time to prepare so they can meet their “flexible” quotas. According to Ettinger, quotas should be mandatory. “Voluntary quotas will not work in the long term,” the politician believes.

Oettinger also called for "harmonization" of aid for refugees across Europe, otherwise large differences between EU countries could create "perverse incentives" for refugees.

As RBC previously wrote , according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 432,761 people crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2015, which was a record. According to the IOM, most of the refugees arrived in Greece (309 thousand 356 people) and Italy (121 thousand 139 people), another 2 thousand 166 people reached Spain, and 100 people went to Malta.

On Saturday, September 12, tens of thousands of people in different European countries took part in actions in support of refugees . The largest of them took place in London, Hamburg and Copenhagen. At the same time, rallies were held in several countries against opening borders to migrants.

in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea in 2015–2016 According to forecasts by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 850 thousand refugees will arrive . In 2015, UNHCR expects about 400,000 refugees to arrive in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea to seek international protection. In 2016, their number could reach 450 thousand or more,” the department’s report says.

European Commissioner calls for changes to the German Constitution because of refugees