Hamburg – Reactions to "Schwan-Knaus proposal for Dublin reform"

Gesine Schwan and Gerald Knaus. Photo: ESI

Gesine Schwan, the president of the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform and ESI's Gerald Knaus published a joint proposal for a new approach for a common European asylum and refugee policy. The proposal foresees that EU funding could be provided directly to cities and municipalities to help cover the costs of accepting refugees – as well as to improve their own infrastructure and development. Such a decentralised approach could be combined with a fundamental overhaul of the Dublin system, as proposed by ESI. The proposal was published in German by Der Spiegel on 28 June 2018:

Gesine Schwan und Gerald Knaus, "Neue EU-Flüchtlingspolitik - Kontrolle und Empathie" ("New EU Refugee Policy - Control and Empathy")

Gerald had published an earlier version on his blog: Gesine Schwan und Gerald Knaus: Vorschlag für eine "europäische Antwort" auf die Flüchtlingsfrage, die sofort umgesetzt werden kann and presented it at a workshop with EU Commissioner Oettinger in Brussels in May.

The proposal has been picked up by several German newspapers:

• ZDF, mittagsmagazin, "Niederlande: 'Ankerzentrum' in Ter Apel" ("Netherlands: 'Anchor centre' in Ter Apel") (13 July 2018)
• Tagesspiegel, Ruprecht Polenz, "Wie eine humane und realistische EU-Migrationspolitik aussehen kann" ("How a humane and realistic EU migration policy could look like") (10 July 2018)
• Der Spiegel, Fiona Ehlers, "Was Deutschland vom niederländischen 'Ankerzentrum' lernen kann" ("What Germany can learn for the Dutch 'Anchor Centre'") (29 June 2018)

Der Spiegel: Mit Kopf und Herz ("Brains and hearts"), 7 July 2018