The range of measures will include: initiatives to develop better cooperation with refugee source countries, most notably with North African states; reinforce Frontex, increase surveillance of the Turkish-Greek border, and improve the management of migratory flows as well as more efficient procedures for deportations and to combat human trafficking.

The proposals have come at time when illegal immigration is the cause of growing concern in Denmark. However the newspaper also notes –

… according to the Ministry of Justice, we do not know how many illegal immigrants there are in Denmark. However, there is some justification for the worry that the large number of immigrants who are currently in Greece and Italy may decide to move north.

The measures are also justified for practical reasons, argues Marlène Wind of Copenhagen University, who is quoted by the daily –

Problems linked to illegal immigration are a threat to the single market and the European spirit of free movement. For this reason, it will also be a victory for the Danish Presidency to have the project implemented.

… when EU influence at the UN has been in decline for several years, and in particular in the UN Human Rights Council, where the West used to be unassailable: in the past, the EU could count on the support of 72% of UN countries, today it can only count on about half of them. Experience has shown that targeted lobbying to forge alliances, in particular with African countries, can restore the image [of the EU], and this approach could be adopted by a special human rights representative.

Even if the proposal is approved by the foreign ministers, the post will not be officially created until June, when the EU plans to present its new policy on human rights.

On 2 December the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs suggested that this right be granted only in emergencies and for a period of five days at most. Currently, states can re-impose border controls for 30 days in the event of a threat to their internal security.

According to diplomatic sources cited by the German daily, the other members of the Schengen area, with the exception of the Czech Republic, Italy and Lithuania, reject the idea of asking permission from Brussels to restore internal border controls. On the contrary, they demand more freedom in this area, particularly in the face of the influx of migrants, and want countries to have the ability to force their partners to restore controls.

According to an expert on immigration quoted by a German newspaper, such a move would be “a challenge to European integration”.

According to Adevărul, Martin Schultz, the leader of the socialist group in the European parliament, has spoken of the possible emergence of "an EU divided in three parts: France and Germany, the rest of the Eurozone and other states with their national currencies". In Bucharest, the Businessmen's Association of Romania (AOAR)  has already proposed that the government take the initiative to form such a "group".

The daily remarks that the initiative would enable "countries that are not in the Eurozone to better protect their interests", but at the same time warns that ensuring "the unity of the zone" would not necessarily be easy. "The Nordic social model in Denmark and Sweden is not aligned with the neoliberal model in Eastern European countries, and London’s status as a net contributor to the EU budget is very different to the status of Eastern countries which are net beneficiaries of the EU’s cohesion policy", concludes Adevărul.

As for immigration policies, an issue in which the Social Democrats had promised to maintain the strict policies of the Rasmussen administration, there again, their partners imposed their views by demanding, for a start, that border controls reimposed last May and which roused an outcry in Europe, be revoked. A measure that, the paper says, "will restore Denmark's dignity".

Beyond the national perspective, however, everything today indicates that Europe has become a kind of labyrinth in which no one recognises his own borders. The external frontiers, the Schengen area, pressed hard on their Greek or Italian flanks, are reinforced on one side with barbed wire (between Greece and Turkey) or with increased sea patrols (in the Mediterranean) – all without any guidelines having been drawn up at European level.

Internal borders, which theoretically are now largely symbolic administrative lines, are in turn subject to manoeuvring that undermines the very principle of free movement throughout the area. Denmark has restored its border controls, ostensibly to fight cross-border crime, and France has done the same to prevent Tunisians from crossing over from Italy. Finally, other borders, these ones political, forced up by domestic issues, are popping up where they were not necessarily expected: in the Netherlands, in Finland and in Denmark, pushed for by Geert Wilders and his party, by the "True Finns", and by the Danish People's Party.  

“I blame Europe and Italy for being asleep, for not being aware of the nationalist and centrifugal forces that are tugging it apart. We have not remembered the lesson from the Balkans: it's enough simply to identify an enemy of the people for a people short of reference points to take it on as truth,” writes the Italian Paolo Rumiz in his book On the Frontiers of Europe (ed. Hoebeke, 2011). He might have added that it risks abandoning part of its soul to wander between these more or less shifting borders, and lose itself. 

The Jyllands-Posten, meanwhile, notes that although the Danish People's Party (DF, far right) dropped to 22 seats from the 25 it held previously  and is no longer able to support a liberal-conservative majority, as it had for 10 years, the outcome of this election cannot be interpreted as "a vote of confidence in Helle Thorning-Schmidt and her programme."

Can she use the new majority to put an end to the influence of the far right on the political debate? Information notes that both the Social Democrats and the Socialists have adopted the immigration policy of the right. In fact, the daily notes, "Helle Thorning-Schmidt finds herself, with Pia Kjaersgaard (the leader of the DF), to be the strongest advocate of a decade of outrageous immigration policy." 

In 2009, a police officer member of the network was sentenced to probation for abusing his position to obtain information on "political opponents". Several of ORG's founders have been members of the leadership of the populist Danish People's Party (FP) and, according to photos posted on the organisation’s forum, celebrate the summer solstice by partying around a cross of fire, an ancient Danish rite. The head of ORG, Jesper Nielsen, declined to meet with Politiken's journalists, but wrote that "ORG does not want this publicity, because we assume that the non-public character of the organisation will be misinterpreted.

But this changes nothing, writes Jyllands-Posten, which believes that the Danish government must have understood by now that it "will not succeed in deceiving European governments” by speaking of the controls in this way.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen finds himself confronted with a growing problem, the paper notes, and it's time “for him to choose whether it’s Europe or the People’s Party he wants to put in its place. We propose, with respect, that it be the latter."

In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung regrets what it describes as "European sequestration."  "It's bad enough that Denmark unscrupulously restricts one of the main freedoms the Europeans have fought for: the abolition of border controls," writes the Munich daily. "But it is worse yet that other European countries are probably going to tolerate this attack against one of the pillars of the unification of Europe. The Commission has known of the intentions of the Danes for almost two months. But since then it has merely ‘examined’ the situation." However, the SZ remarks, “one cannot put forward the excuse that political power is occupied with the debt crisis. Freedoms are just as vital for the EU as its currency."

A perfect solution, according to Politiken, which amounts to "pure Buddhism: a synthesis of peace, harmony and emancipation." The deal marks "the capitulation of conservative Denmark," adds the social-liberal daily, which pays homage to the “pragmatism" of the Minister for Finance, liberal Claus Hjort Frederiksen, who put an end to an eight-year ideological battle.

The pragmatic aspects of the agreement are also praised by Berlingske, which argues that "the destruction of Christiania, which was in principle the appropriate response from a state that respects the rule of law, would probably have resulted in a kind of civil war, and created a huge gap of mistrust between the population and the authorities." The conservative daily is nonetheless critical of the deal. "For 40 years, the Christianites, in their bid to realise their so-called freedom, have lived as parasites on other citizens. Theirs is a private form of freedom that should not be rewarded."

It is a view shared by Jyllands-Posten, which remarks that Christiania is simply stolen property. No one in the community, which was founded on a disused site in 1971, has ever paid for the land, and the price of 10.2 million euros (469 euros per square metre) negotiated by the residents is too low. For the newspaper, "the affair shows that crime on a sufficiently large scale actually pays.” Over the years Christiania has become a hub for illegal drugs, and Jyllands-Posten hopes that the agreement with the government will bring the rule of law to every aspect of the commune "so that there will be no more dealing, and the police will be able to do its job. The Christianites should also set aside the obsessive protection of their privacy so that tourists can take pictures freely –  in accordance with the law –  and without being attacked."

The conservative daily Jyllands-Posten revealed this report on April 28 under the headline “Restrictions on foreigners saves billions”. According to the liberal daily, the annual cost to Danish society of non-Western immigrants is put at 15.7 billion kroner (2.1 billion euros), and since the right came to power in 2001 the kingdom has saved 5.1 billion kroner (nearly 684 million euros) every year. 

In Information, the economists deny this interpretation of their report, explaining that it cannot be known how non-Western immigrants affect the economy of the kingdom. While the figures are correct, the economists explain, they do not capture the cost of immigrants. For example, their study does not distinguish between refugees and immigrants whose situations and journey to Denmark differ. And as the proportion of children and youth is higher among immigrants than in Danish society in general, immigrants do currently contribute far less than others in society through taxes, but that will probably change over time. That is why, says Marianne Frank Hansen, one of the leaders of the group of economists behind the report, calling for tougher immigration law “is a somewhat exaggerated conclusion to be drawn from the report.”

“The United Kingdom does it. So does the Netherlands, and so too do Belgium, Norway and Denmark. Following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, all five of these European Council countries are refusing to comply with the Dublin II regulation, which stipulates that asylum seekers have to wait for their asylum applications to be processed in the country where they enter the EU,” notes the Viennese daily.

According to a UN human rights expert, the asylum system in Greece has been overwhelmed to the point where refugees of all ages are likely to spend six months behind bars. Conditions in the detention camps are degrading and represent a potentially fatal risk to health, and the backlog of cases in the judicial system has meant that asylum seekers must wait for months to have their claims heard.

“The asylum crisis in Greece has become a painful problem for the EU,” points out Der Standard, because the EU27 will now have to find a solution to “humanise” the Dublin II system. On 28 October, the German Constitutional Court is to begin deliberations on the issue of whether Berlin has the right to automatically expel refugees to other EU countries without allowing them a hearing. Since 2009, the Karlsruhe court has ruled against 13 deportations to Greece, and the country’s appeal courts have also found in favour of refugees in more than 300 other cases. The Constitutional Court’s decision is expected in 2011.