Weekly update of European news with the HP. This weekend, Jeremy Corbyn officially endorses the In camp, strife breaks out once more in the German government, the EU announces plans to send more men to the Macedonian border, and the launch of DiEM25 grows ever nearer.

Jeremy Corbyn calls for Britain to remain in the EU: The AFP reported on Saturday that Jeremy Corbyn fully endorsed Britain’s membership of the EU at a party activists meeting in Nottingham. According to the Leader of the Opposition, remaining in the Union is in the best interests of the country, and therefore he would be campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU in the coming referendum. With the announcement of a draft deal last week, it appears that the referendum could come any time as early as June. Despite his statements on Saturday, Mr Corbyn has traditionally been an opponent of the bloc, which he voted to leave in the 1975 referendum; he also voted against the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht that turned transformed the bloc into the modern European Union. Commenting on this, Leave.EU said that the Opposition Leader was “a lifelong opponent” of the EU, and had thus been gagged by the more moderate voices in the Labour Party. Regardless of the truth of these statements, Mr Corbyn has announced that in the referendum campaign, Labour would also be campaigning for a more “social Europe”, which would not fight against public ownership, and would resist against potential external threats, including the threat to public services posed by the free trade deal with the US, TTIP. Commenting on the EU, Jeremy Corbyn said “Our party is committed to keeping Britain in the EU because we believe it is the best framework for European trade and cooperation and in the best interests of the people of Britain”, before continuing “But we also want to see progressive reform in Europe: democratisation, stronger workers’ rights, sustainable growth and jobs at the heart of the economic policy and an end to the pressure to privatise and deregulate public services”.

Commission plans to send more men to the Macedonian border: The FT published an article on Saturday, reporting that the European Commission was planning to send more border guards to reinforce the Macedonian border with Greece. According to the article EU member-states have constructed a deal whereby they would send detachments of border guards and even soldiers to the Macedonian border, in order to stem the flow of people streaming into central and northern Europe. The Western Balkans route has become the most popular route for refugees and migrants wanting to make their way to the richer northern EU nations and therefore a plan to block the route has been popular in Brussels and Berlin for some time. Athens is naturally opposed to the idea, as it would trap the refugees in Greece, a country under severe strain to support itself and working on reforms to restructure its society. This year around 68,000 migrants have entered the EU via the Greek border, and diplomats fear this will only worsen with a deterioration of the situation in Syria; they further explained that a plan floating around at the talks involves sending troops and border guards to the Macedonian side of the Greek border to “hermetically seal” off the rest of the continent. The plan was suggested by Slovenia last month, but would involve the EU taking the side of Greece’s historic rival, Macedonia, which is not a member of the Union. Countries such as Hungary have been bilaterally sending support staff in any case to support the Macedonian government. The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, told his European colleagues “If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone and does not accept any help or assistance from the EU, then we need another defence line, which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria” in a meeting in Amsterdam on Friday. Officials however are wary of this kind of border closure and a potential humanitarian crisis in the historically unstable Balkans region. Alexis Tsipras has argued that Greece should not be turned into a “black box” for refugees, however northern European countries have taken to the idea of turning Greece into a makeshift refugee camp for the Union.

DiEM25 releases its manifesto in preparation for 9th Feb launch: In an article in The Guardian, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced the launch of DiEM25; a movement to restore democracy to the European level and provide a ‘third way’, which would involve neither the Union continuing as it is, nor it withdrawing into its nation-states. You can get the HP’s report on DiEM25’s launch here. In the movement’s manifesto, Mr Varoufakis and his colleagues have argued that the European project is under threat of total disintegration, without the speedy restoration of democracy at the European level. The alternatives – remaining as we are or returning to nation-statehood – are both less than satisfactory options. The European project so far has produced huge gains in Europe, and by withdrawing to the nation-states, any hopes of a stronger and more civilised modern Europe as a symbol to the world would be lost. However by remaining on its current course, the Union will most certainly disintegrate. Hence Varoufakis and his colleagues have sent out the call to all European democrats that the time has come to gather and retake European democracy. The movement officially launches on the 9th February in Berlin, with an event at 20:30 CET (19:30 GMT) at the Volksbühne which will be live streamed. The movement aims to hold a Constituent Assembly by 2025, which will make the EU more representative, accountable and transparent, and will end the failed economic policies and contempt for democracy that the bureaucrats, eurocrats and other technocrats in power currently have.

Asylum bill in Germany causes strife in the coalition: Die Zeit reported in an article on Sunday that the new bill on Asylum-seeker rules being presented before the Bundestag has been rejected by several SPD parliamentarians. The so-called Asylpaket II, has caused dissent after unaccompanied children were included among those who would not be able to apply for family reunification, as part of the new law. In a previous version of the draft bill, unaccompanied children were excluded from the new rules. Leader of the SPD in the Bundestag, Sigmar Gabriel, told the press on Friday that he was not consulted on the change to the bill. However, this would suggest, according to Die Zeit, that the SPD-led Justice Ministry were not alerted to the changed regulations either. There are suspicions among SPD parliamentarians that Mr Gabriel in fact made concessions to the CDU over the issue, which he did not agree with or communicate to his party. The CDU has demanded that the SPD agree to support the deal; several social democrat Members of the Bundestag however have announced that they will not agree to the bill in its current form. The Opposition has criticised the actions of the governing coalition, the leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Cem Özdemir saying that these actions “merely feed the rhetoric of radicals”. “The Grand Coalition must pull together” he continued, before saying that the changes made to the bill were wrong. He explained that it would only “make integration more difficult” and that “they will not be able to integrate better when they are left alone”.

Sources: FT, The Guardian, DiEM25.org, Die Zeit, AFP