European Solution to the Refugee Issue
The main question of the 45th Andechs Europe Day, which took place on 12/13 March 2016 in Andechs Monastery, was: Welcome culture - or fences at all borders?
President of Paneuropa-Deutschland Bernd Posselt warned against ‘unscrupulous renationalisers who use the idea of a fenced-in nation state to give people the illusion of security and at the same time prevent real solutions for the entire continent’.
Posselt claimed that the EU is not as fragmented as is repeatedly claimed, but merely blocked by national governments. Both the people and the European institutions unanimously wanted stabilisation in Africa and the Mediterranean region, peace efforts in Syria and the Middle East, better living conditions for refugees in the neighbouring states bordering Syria and functioning controls and registration points at the EU's external borders. Each of these tasks requires more, not less, European integration.
Stephan Baier, Orient and Europe expert at the ‘Tagespost’, outlined the development of the Mediterranean region from antiquity to the present day. The ‘mare mediterrano’ usually connected the peoples more than it separated them, while deserts such as the Sahara tended to have an insurmountable character. The EU had to become a ‘superpower of peace’, as Otto von Habsburg had demanded.
According to Prof Reinhard Meier-Walser, Academy Director at the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 did not bring about a new world order as announced by then US President George Bush, but rather a world disorder.
The historian Meinolf Arens from the International Institute for Nationality Law and Regionalism addressed the religious dimension of flight, expulsion and integration.
Prague publicist, biologist and educator Jaroslav Šonka compared the attitude of European societies towards refugees from Africa and Arabia with the territorial behaviour of jackdaws researched by Konrad Lorenz.
At the stage talk in the Klostergasthof, Andrea Taubenböck, Vice President and Managing Director of the ‘Wertebündnis Bayern’ foundation, reported on this organisation, which was initiated by Minister President Horst Seehofer and is unique in Europe.
160 guests from 14 nations came to Bavaria's Holy Mountain for the Christian Europe Day at Andechs Monastery in Upper Bavaria. Bishop Mihály Mayer from Pecs/Fünfkirchen in southern Hungary celebrated mass in honour of Saint Benedict, the patron saint of Europe, in the pilgrimage church.
The panel discussion on the topic ‘Borders closed? Freedom, security and integration in the age of the refugee crisis’ was introduced by moderator Franziskus Posselt, Federal Chairman of Pan-European Youth, with reflections on the importance of borders, also with a view to ’the more than 10,000 people who are staying in Idomenei and waiting to see whether they can continue on to Europe or not.’ Borders determine human life; on the one hand, they stand for separation, division and partition, often causing disputes that, in the worst case, end in war; on the other hand, they can also create a space for freedom, security and stability.
- Programme (DE) (PDF)
- Press release: 45th Andechs Europe Day (DE) (PDF)