Kouchner Calls for EU-Wide Refugee-Friendly Policy at Event Naming OSA in Honor of Ambassador Donald and Vera Blinken

Former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, called for a common European Union policy to accept and help refugees, in a keynote address at a Nov. 3 event to officially name CEU's Open Society Archives (OSA) in honor of Ambassador Donald and Vera Blinken.

“After 60 years of building up the EU, we were unable to offer a common answer” to the crisis, Kouchner said, referring to the lack of a common policy and EU member states’ refusal to accept a quota system. “We have to be open to these people. This is just the beginning of globalization in the South and refusal in the North.”

Kouchner called on Europeans to remember the waves of refugees coming from Hungary after World War II, which included Vera Blinken, who found a welcoming new home in the U.S. after her escape with her mother in 1950. Vera returned to Budapest in 1994 as the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary.

Kouchner pointed out that Europe, with its vast wealth and infrastructure, should be able to accommodate 1 million refugees, a fraction of its 500 million-strong population. He also called on European countries to accept them on human rights grounds, noting that signatories to the Geneva Convention are under legal obligation to help refugees.


CEU Founder and Honorary Chairman George Soros speaks at the dedication event of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives. Image credit: CEU/Daniel Vegel

Racism and nationalism are prompting an inhumane view of refugees from Muslim countries as inherently dangerous, Kouchner said. Just as doctors cannot and do not differentiate between patients with the same illness, we should treat refugees from any country as humans in need of any aid we can give them, he said.

“We are separating the 'good' refugees from the 'bad,'” he said. “They are coming to the EU because we are richer than they are and there is a possibility of them getting back with their family and living in a more normal way. Our generosity should be the same.”

He praised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her open-door policy, saying Merkel “saved the honor of the European Union.”

At the event, CEU Founder and Honorary Chairman George Soros introduced Kouchner, his friend of over 40 years.


Bernard Kouchner greets Ambassador Donald and Vera Blinken at the Open Society Archives that was renamed in honor of a gift from the couple. Image credit: CEU/Daniel Vegel

Ambassador Donald and Vera Blinken are also longtime friends of CEU and OSA. The couple have provided a major bequest to sustain the institution, now known as the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives. Their gift will create a permanent endowed fund, which will allow the Archives to expand its critical work in preserving one of the world's most valuable archival collections related to the Cold War, human rights movements and grave international human rights violations.