Herculean proportions?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Herculean proportions?

“It is the biggest challenge the EU has ever faced,” he said.

It was a sober assessment from the president of the European Commission, which reflects the fact that this is a throw of the dice, a gamble based on deterrence which could well fail.

Scepticism hangs heavy in the air about a host of legal issues, and about whether the agreement can actually work in practice.

The idea at the heart of the deal - sending virtually all irregular migrants back to Turkey from the Greek islands - is the most controversial.

European leaders insist that everything will be in compliance with the law.

“It excludes any kind of collective expulsions,” emphasised European Council President Donald Tusk.

But Amnesty International has accused the EU of “turning its back on a global refugee crisis, and wilfully ignoring its international obligations”.

- EU-Turkey migrant deal: A Herculean task, BBC.com, March 18, 2016.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.