EU countries struggled  to agree on several measures aimed at addressing the migration crisis, and ministers failed to reach a unanimous agreement on a controversial European Commission proposal to relocate 120,000 refugees.

Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan to relocate the additional migrants, as proposed by the Commission, unless it is clear that it will be carried out on a voluntary basis, EU diplomats said. Diplomatic sources said a clash between France’s Bernard Cazeneuve and Slovakia’s Robert Kalinak made a final deal more difficult to reach.

The Commission has pushed for the relocation quotas to be mandatory for EU countries.

The meeting put a great emphasis on the quick set up of hotspots to quickly detect those in need of protection in Italy and Greece as a pre-condition of relocation, said Asselborn.

At the end of the meeting the final conclusions stated that the Council has “agreed in principle to relocate an additional 120,000 persons,” but the decision was not taken unanimously. The final document was issued by the Presidency and not by the whole Council.

The conclusion does not mention from which states the refugees will be relocated. In the Commission’s proposal, refugees were expected to be relocated from Italy, Greece and Hungary

In a press conference with Cazeneuve while the meeting was still going on, German interior minister Thomas de Maizière confirmed there had been no breakthrough deal on a mandatory quota system. On Friday European Council President Donald Tusk said he would call an emergency summit of EU leaders if this meeting failed to produce “a concrete sign of solidarity.”

A draft set of conclusions circulated before Monday’s meeting began retained the commitment to relocate the 120,000, but left out crucial details on how it would be carried out — and how the burden would be shared.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker last week made the proposal a centerpiece of his State of the Union address, saying Europe needed “immediate action” to address the crisis.

But by Monday afternoon the Commission was lowering its expectations. In a briefing before the ministers’ meeting, a spokeswoman said that for the Commission “mandatory is the best way forward” but that “if the result is achieved, that is the most important thing.”

The numbers being discussed by ministers are still only a fraction of the potential influx of refugees, which Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel estimated in a letter to members of his Social Democratic party (SPD) could be as high as one million people this year — in Germany alone.

Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls along its frontier with Austria also complicated talks. The question of whether the relocation of refugees in Europe should be mandatory or voluntary has been one of the main problems for many nations, especially Eastern European and Baltic countries.

EU officials say Hungary’s reluctance to be considered a front-line border state was a problem in the negotiations.  But after the proposal was unveiled by Juncker, Budapest backtracked, asking not to take part in the relocation package even though it would result in 54,000 refugees being moved out of Hungary (as well as 50,400 from Greece and 15,600 from Italy).

“I told the Hungarians that they should be the solution and not the problem,” said Jean Asselborn, the minister of foreign and European affairs of Luxembourg, “We want to help them. But the key to Europe’s functioning is not in the hands of Mr. Orbán. I hope we will find a solution.”

Interior ministers from Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and Greece held a separate meeting with representatives of the European Commission and the Luxembourg EU presidency ahead of the start of the Council, officials said.

Commission officials said Germany’s move to reinstate border controls was justified under the current circumstances and that Berlin had given assurances that the move was temporary.

They added that if it appeared that there would be a domino effect of too many countries enacting controls, they could ask the Council to assess the situation on the ground and intervene. But EU officials stressed this was not currently the case.

The Rocky Road to Globalization

Patrick Kingsley writes:  When you’re facing the world’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war, it helps to have a sober debate about how to respond. But to do that, you need facts and data.

Far from being propelled by economic migrants, this crisis is mostly about refugees. Fleeing poverty is not considered by the international community as a good enough reason to move to another country. Whereas in fact, by the end of July, 62% of those who had reached Europe by boat this year were from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan, according to figures compiled by the UN. These are countries torn apart by war, dictatorial oppression, and religious extremism – and, in Syria’s case, all three. Their citizens almost always have the legal right to refuge in Europe. And if you add to the mix those coming from Darfur, Iraq, Somalia, and some parts of Nigeria – then the total proportion of migrants likely to qualify for asylum rises to well over 70%.
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The migrants at Calais account for as little as 1% of those who have arrived in Europe so far this year. Estimates suggest that between 2,000-5,000 migrants have reached Calais.

Do migrants speed the collapse of the European social order? In reality, the number of migrants to have arrived so far this year (200,000) is so minuscule that it constitutes just 0.027% of Europe’s total population of 740 million. The world’s wealthiest continent can easily handle such a comparatively small influx.

The most obvious example is Lebanon, which is the-countries-with-the-most-refugees-per-1000-inhabitants. Lebanon is a country that is more than 100 times smaller than the EU has already taken in more than 50 times as many refugees as the EU will even consider resettling in the future.

This year, according to UN figures, 50% alone are from two non-African countries: Syria (38%) and Afghanistan (12%). When migrants from Pakistan, Iraq and Iran are added into the equation, it becomes clear that the number of African migrants is significantly less than half.

The EU opted to suspend full-scale maritime rescue operations in the Mediterranean in the belief that their presence was encouraging more migrants to risk the sea journey from Libya to Europe. In reality, people kept on coming. In fact, there was a 4% year-on-year increase during the months that the rescue missions were on hiatus. Over 27,800 tried the journey in 2015, or died in the attempt, until operations were reinstated in May, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration. Only 26,740 tried it in 2014.

Is the solution to migration is to increase deportations? A billion has been blown on Europe-wide coordination efforts to secure European borders – money that could have been spent on integrating migrants into European society.

The proportion of refugees housed by developing countries in the past 10 years has risen, according to the UN, from 70% to 86%.

William Pesek writes:  Indonesia has come a long way since Oct. 20, when Joko Widodo was sworn in as president. Unfortunately, the distance the country has traveled has been in the wrong direction.

Expectations were that Widodo, known as Jokowi, would accelerate the reforms of predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — upgrading infrastructure, reducing red tape, curbing corruption. Who better to do so than Indonesia’s first leader independent of dynastic families and the military?

In 10 years at the helm, Yudhoyono dragged the economy from failed-state candidate to investment-grade growth star.  After 291 days, however, Jokowi seems no match for an Indonesian establishment bent on protecting the status quo.

Investors are already voting with their feet. The Jakarta Composite Index has fallen 13 percent from its April 7 record high, one of Asia’s biggest plunges in that time. And foreign direct investment underwhelmed last quarter, coming in at $7.4 billion, little changed from a year earlier in dollar terms.

Jokowi has plenty of time to turn things around; 1,535 days remain in his five-year term. But the “halo effect” MasterCard’s Matthew Driver says Jokowi carried into office is fast fading as Indonesia’s 250 million people flirt with buyer’s remorse.

First, Jokowi must step up efforts to battle weakening exports. I

Next, Jokowi must decide what kind of leader he wants to be: a craven populist or the modernizer Indonesia needs. That means taking on entrenched interests and thinking bigger. Take Jokowi’s industrialization push. Understandably, he wants to support the development of manufacturing to boost exports and cut a persistent current-account deficit. But Jokowi needs to complement that policy with investments in education and training. 

While it’s still early for Jokowi, Indonesia is already paying a price for his mismanagement. The rupiah is down 13 percent over the past 12 months — and the Federal Reserve’s first post-quantitative-easing rate hike is still looming on the horizon. 

This is a moment to question how far the entire Southeast Asia region has come in recent decades. Thailand is fast losing steam as the latest military junta to rule the nation neglects the economy. Malaysia’s currency is at 17 year lows as Prime Minister Najib Razak tries to explain $700 million that allegedly made its way into a bank account he controls. And now Indonesia is losing the investment it worked so hard to win back since Suharto’s ouster. Jokowi can still turn things around, but he’s got a lot of convincing to do — both inside Indonesia and out.

Carol E. Lee writes: President Barack Obama is set to visit his father’s native Kenya this weekend in a long-anticipated trip designed to highlight his personal ties to a continent that has largely been on the periphery of his foreign-policy agenda.

Mr. Obama plans to showcase initiatives he hopes will define his Africa legacy, such as steps to increase access to electricity.

He will move on to Ethiopia, meeting with the African Union on matters of trade, business and security, as U.S. officials have voiced growing concerns over the rise of extremism.

But his arrival in Nairobi on Friday is in itself a hallmark moment for his presidency. For Mr. Obama, it isn’t so much what he does, but who he is that ties him to the continent—and to Kenya in particular—and sets him apart from other U.S. presidents who have invested resources in Africa.

His two-day visit is widely seen as a homecoming of sorts, as the first African-American U.S. president returning to a country that considers him a native son.

Mr. Obama plans to spend time with members of his father’s family. He will meet with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, hold an event with young African leaders and reflect on his familial roots in a speech at an indoor sports arena.

Mr. Obama’s election in 2008 raised expectations across Africa for deeper American engagement. But his foreign-policy agenda has largely been consumed by unrest in the Middle East and efforts to strengthen U.S. ties in Asia.

During his first term, Mr. Obama spent about a day in sub-Saharan Africa, with a brief visit to Ghana.

His trip this week is part of a renewed focus on the continent in the homestretch of his presidency. It follows his gathering of African leaders in Washington last year, and his 2013 trip to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

Mr. Obama is expected to use the platforms in Kenya and Ethiopia to highlight programs to combat hunger and his 2013 electricity initiative, Power Africa, which has been slow to expand. White House officials said he also plans to raise human rights, corruption and democracy concerns.

In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s ruling party won all seats in Parliament this year, a result the White House has said raises concerns about the integrity of that election.

Africa is also increasingly a security concern for the U.S., with the rise of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups in the east and Islamic State’s expansion in the west and north.

Kenyan officials have said they hope Mr. Obama will focus on how Kenya and the U.S. can collaborate on business—both bringing in large U.S. companies and helping nurture Kenya as a location for film production.

But much of the two countries’ collaboration currently is in the realm of security—the U.S. trains Kenyan soldiers and shares intelligence in the effort to keep extremist militants from al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab at bay.

Mr. Obama’s 49-year-old half-uncle, Said Obama, said his nephew’s visit to Kenya has been eagerly awaited.

“It would have looked very bad if he had left office without visiting Kenya,” he said, adding, “The people of Kenya are proud of him because of his achievements, though I can also say that there were very unrealistic expectations. People thought that being the president of America he was going to develop this place, do very many things.”

In Nairobi, a massive city-beautification effort has been under way for weeks in preparation for Mr. Obama’s arrival. New roads have opened, and highway medians have been adorned with flowers. Residents are jokingly calling the efforts “Obamacare.” Street hawkers, meanwhile, are selling American flags and T-shirts welcoming Mr. Obama “home.”

“There’s huge excitement in Kenya and perhaps excessive expectations of what this trip might deliver,” said Jennifer Cooke,director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“I’ll be honest with you, visiting Kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president because I can actually get outside of a hotel room or a conference center,” Mr. Obama said last week. “But it’s obviously symbolically important.”

John C. Williams, President of San Francisco Federal Reserve, comments: The U.S. economy is looking quite good. Growth is on a solid trajectory, and the FOMC’s maximum employment goal is in sight. Risks from abroad are unlikely to overturn strong U.S. fundamentals. Still, the exact timing of an initial interest rate increase will depend on convincing evidence that inflation is heading back toward target.   John C. Williams