Macron Says EU Must Share Refugees, Expel Economic Migrants

• French propose closed centers to sift through asylum claims
• Italy’s Salvini calls Macron ‘arrogant’ in migrant dispute

By Gregory Viscusi @ Bloomberg.com, Updated on June 23, 2018, 12:26 PM EDT

French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants the European Union to establish “closed centers” in countries such as Italy and Greece to swiftly determine the status of migrants arriving by sea, with genuine asylum seekers shared out among EU members and so-called economic migrants sent home.

Macron made the proposal at a Saturday meeting in Paris with Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez a day ahead of a meeting of about 15 European leaders in Brussels to tackle an issue that caused deep splits within the EU.

“National solutions can flatter some egos, but they’ll bring less-than-desirable results,” Macron said, clearly referring to Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who in recent weeks has played brinkmanship with other EU countries by refusing to accept humanitarian ships carrying migrants to Italian ports. “We must keep our calm and not yield to the extremes.”

At the same time, Macron threatened eastern European countries that have refused to take part in previous rounds of accepting refugees, saying they can’t continue to count on European aid if they don’t change their policies. Sunday’s informal meeting comes before what promises to be a fractious summit of all 28 EU members on Thursday and Friday [....]