EU expects three million migrant arrivals by 2017. Pierre Moscovici said that the migrants could help boost the EU economy

Three million migrants are expected to arrive in Europe by 2017 as they flee war and poverty in Syria and other conflict zones, with a small positive impact on the EU economy likely, the EU's executive arm said on Thursday.


"Overall, an additional three million persons is assumed to arrive in the EU over the forecast period," the European Commission's economic forecast for 2015-2017 said.

It predicted that there would be one million arrivals in total during 2015, 1.5 million in 2016 and half a million in 2017, adding that it would represent an increase in the EU's population of around 0.4 percent once unsuccessful asylum applications were taken into account.

• European Union economic commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that the migrants could help boost the EU economy, helping the moderate recovery predicted in the eurozone during that period.

"There will be an impact on growth that is weak but positive for the EU as a whole, and that will increase GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 0.2 to 0.3 percent by 2017," Moscovici said.

"That will combat a certain number of received ideas and backs the politics of President (Jean-Claude Juncker)," who has pushed for the EU to do more to help migrants, Moscovici added.

• One in three German asylum seekers Syrian

Germany registered more than 758,000 asylum seekers from January to October this year, the interior ministry said Thursday, with Syrians accounting for one in every three applicants.

For the month of October alone, 181,000 migrants arrived seeking refuge, surpassing the previous monthly record of around 163,000 arrivals registered in September.

Germany is expecting to receive up to one million asylum seekers this year, and the sudden surge has left local authorities scrambling to cope.

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis topped October's arrivals while the number of migrants from Balkans states has fallen sharply compared to previous months after Berlin took a firm line against what it deems economic migrants from those countries.

Germany has also begun looking at limiting arrivals from Afghanistan, with Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere saying last week that the rising number of asylum seekers from the war-torn country was "unacceptable".

"There is an increasing number of citizens from the middle class, also from Kabul, and we are in agreement with the Afghan government that young Afghans from middle-class families should stay in their country and rebuild it," he said.
(AFP)
 mme.gr
5/11/15
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