EU Resettles Immigrants

The head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has urged European leaders to set up a "massive" refugee resettlement program.

Antonio Guterres said moves to speed up the processing of asylum seekers in Greece was welcome but "not enough".

He was speaking as a new UN report warned that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide would "far surpass" a record 60 million this year.

The EU is grappling to deal with an huge influx of migrants.

More than one million asylum seekers are expected to have arrived in Europe by the end of the year, prompting some states to put up fences and introduce border controls despite the EU's border-free Schengen area.

Mr Guterres said the numbers of displaced people would grow unless conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya were resolved.

Earlier this week, the EU agreed to increase the numbers of Frontex border agency staff in Greece, where hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived by boat.

Many asylum seekers then travel north via the Balkan states without being registered.

Mr Guterres welcomed the move but said it was "not enough".

And he called for the numbers of refugees being resettled in Europe to be increased.

"We are encouraged by the fact that a number of European countries have been saying, and I believe this is on the table to the European Council, that a massive resettlement program needs to be put in place for Syrians, but I would expect also for refugees in general," he told a news conference. 

"And when I mean massive, I mean hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, not just what has been discussed until now in relation to resettlement.

"If this is not put in place and the tragedy in the Aegean goes on and the Balkan chaotic situation goes on, I must say I am very worried for the future of the European asylum system."

EU states have agreed to resettle 22,000 people direct from UN refugee camps but so far only about 600 have arrived.

Peter Sutherland, the UN special envoy for migration, also called on European states to take more refugees.

"It is absurd that a continent of 508 million in the EU should find itself unable to deal with what is and should be a manageable number," he told the BBC.

He added: "We have a straightforward moral obligation to take those who are persecuted - which is what refugees are - and to offer them sanctuary."

Friday's report by the UNHCR said "one in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes."

Eurozone in Trouble

Leaving the European Union would threaten jobs and put the UK's economy at risk, leaders of some of Britain's biggest companies have said.

Bosses - including those of BT, Marks & Spencer and Vodafone - signed a letter published in the Times, saying an EU exit would deter investment in the UK.

Leave campaigners point out two-thirds of FTSE 100 firms, including Tesco and Sainsbury, did not back the letter.

A referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU will be held on 23 June.

David Cameron earlier took questions from employees of mobile phone giant O2, one of the signatories of the letter, at its headquarters in Slough, on the first of a series of tour events to sell his pro-EU message to voters. 

The move is designed to reach beyond Westminster and the emerging divisions within the Tory party. 

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the most high-profile politician to back EU exit, has urged people to focus on the issues and played down talk of ill feeling between him and the PM, saying "team spirit" within the party was good.

In a move described by No 10 as "unprecedented", chairmen or chief executives of 36 FTSE 100 companies signed the letter, organised by Stronger in Europe and Downing Street, backing the campaign to stay in the EU, including Burberry, BAE Systems and EasyJet. 

The FTSE bosses were among a total of 198 signatories from the business world, including the chief executives of Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

However, nearly two-thirds of the UK's largest publicly listed businesses did not sign, including RBS and Barclays.

Asked about why the majority of FTSE 100 companies did not sign the letter, Mr Cameron said companies were often reluctant to "make any form of political statement".

But he added: "If the leave campaign could produce 35 business leaders of this sort of stature they'd be over the moon and I don't think they have the prospect of doing that with FTSE 100 leaders in any way."

On Boris Johnson's decision to campaign against him, the prime minister said he had "huge respect" for the London Mayor and he had "great future in British politics" but added: "He has got it wrong on this one."

On The Verge of Collapse

Billionaire financier George Soros (above) has warned that the European Union is on the "verge of collapse" over the migrant crisis and is in "danger of kicking the ball further up the hill" in its management of the issue which has seen more than a million migrants and refugees arrive in the region in 2015. 

In an interview with the New York Review of Books, Soros added that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is key to solving the crisis. 

Merkel led Europe's response to the migrant crisis, opening Germany to the refugees that had traveled from the Middle East, in particular Syria, to try and find a new home in Europe. 

The decision by the German leader marked a sea-change in her policy. In the interview, Soros said he welcomed Merkel's move. 

"There is plenty to be nervous about," the financier said. 

"As she (Merkel) correctly predicted, the EU is on the verge of collapse. 

The Greek crisis taught the European authorities the art of muddling through one crisis after another. 

This practice is popularly known as kicking the can down the road, although it would be more accurate to describe it as kicking a ball uphill so that it keeps rolling back down." 

"Merkel correctly foresaw the potential of the migration crisis to destroy the European Union. What was a prediction has become the reality. The European Union badly needs fixing. This is a fact but it is not irreversible. And the people who can stop Merkel's dire prediction from coming true are actually the German people." 

"Now it's time for Germans to decide: Do they want to accept the responsibilities and the liabilities involved in being the dominant power in Europe?" 

Soros' comments come as Finland's Finance Minister, Alex Stubb, told CNBC that Germany's open policy on migrants was, "humane, that was probably the right thing to do at the time but the key issue here is that one of the fundamental freedoms of the European Union is under threat and that is the free movement of people and the whole Schengen agreement." 

On top of that, we've had a Euro crisis which is about free movement of money so two of the core pillars of European integration are under threat right now," said Stubb, to CNBC in Davos.

In his interview Wednesday, Stubb denied the idea that the Schengen zone, which allows the free passage of EU citizens through almost all of its members, is a security threat to Europe. 

"We shouldn't draw parallels between [the] refugee crisis and terrorism. The roots of terrorism are much, much deeper than that." Read more: 

Leave EU

Voters would feel they had regained control over their own destiny if Britain became fully independent from Brussels, the Mayor of London said.

Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson warned that the country must be ready to "walk away" from Europe if David Cameron failed to negotiate better terms of membership. 

Mr Johnson's comments will fuel the increasingly fevered debate inside the Conservative Party about European policy, which has flared after the success of Ukip in last week's local elections. 

The Mayor's intervention, at a conference of international business leaders in London, followed an attack from the Prime Minister on Right-wing "pessimists" who believed Britain's relations with Europe could never change. 

Mr Cameron is under pressure from his backbench MPs to call a vote in the Commons before the 2015 election on a Bill allowing a referendum on EU membership. 

The Prime Minister has promised to hold talks to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership and then put a new deal to the British people in a referendum after the next election. 

While Mr Cameron has said he wants Britain to remain inside the EU, Mr Johnson said quitting would not be "fatal" for Britain. 

Speaking to reporters at the Global Investment Conference, Mr Johnson said he remained "narrowly in favour" of staying inside the grouping of 27 member states and supported David Cameron's policy of negotiating a new relationship for Britain in the EU. 

But he added: "If that fails then yes, obviously, we should be ready to walk away," he said. "We should be ready to leave." 

The public would welcome a British exit because people would feel they had won back control over their own lives from Brussels, the Mayor claimed. 

"If we are honest, I think, democratically, it would be a shot in the arm because people would suddenly feel, yes, we are running our own destiny again, our politics is entirely independent, British electors can choose the people who are taking decisions that affect their lives. 

"That would be a very important benefit." 

However, it would be essential to ensure British businesses did not suffer from losing trade in Europe. 

Earlier, Mr Cameron had told the 300 conference delegates that he could negotiate a new relationship for Britain with Europe. 

Mr Cameron attacked the "pessimists" who believed he would fail, in a direct rebuke to Tory grandees, such as Michael Portillo and Lord Lawson, who have called for the UK to withdraw from the EU. 

"There are some pro European pessimists who say, you have to, in Europe, simply sign up to every single thing that anyone in the EU suggests. 

You sign every treaty, you sign everything - there is no alternative. 

"I think they are completely wrong," Mr Cameron said.