Mediapart is launching a special project called “#OpenEurope” in partnership with seven Tunisian and European news outlets plus associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This operation is a direct response to the miserable selfishness shown by European leaders, and aims to tell the real stories of how people are coming together to help migrants in Europe. The objective, too, is to defend a vision of Europe that stays true to its values of welcome, asylum and openness. Mediapart reporter Carine Fouteau and editor François Bonnet explain how it will work – and how people can get involved.
All summer long we will be treated to the spectacle of the wretched haggling of European leaders over the sharing out of the 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean migrants who have arrived on Europe's shores. All summer long they will lament the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean – nearly 2,000 have died since the start of the year – even as they call for a strengthening of the Schengen Area's external borders. A recent illustration of this selfishness took place at the European summit held on June 25th and 26th, when leaders spoke of expulsions rather than how to welcome migrants, reaffirming their vision of a fortress Europe that remains impervious behind its walls.
