International Managing Fund head Christine Lagarde said on Thursday (July 14) the British exit from the European Union could inspire a new “focus” by European leaders.
“The positive person inside myself, while regretting of course the decision that was made by the British people, believes that it could be a catalyst for a reawakening, a momentum, a focus on the real issues that will make a difference in people’s lives,” Lagarde said during an event at the Center for Global Development in Washington.
Lagarde also said she was “encouraged” to see European authorities working to adopt a pan-European response to the issue of refugees. The IMF head said previous efforts by European leaders to address migrants had been “piecemeal” and limited.
The European Commission proposed on Wednesday (July 13) to harmonize further EU asylum rules, partly to ensure that people waiting for refugee status do not cross Europe’s internal borders in ways that have disrupted its passport-free zone.
The Commission blamed differences in asylum procedures and conditions offered to refugees in EU states for such “secondary movements”. Last year, 1.3 million people reached the bloc and most ignored legal restrictions to trek from the Mediterranean coast to wealthy Germany, prompting several EU states to suspend the open internal border regime of Europe’s Schengen area.
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