Brussels, 07/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Greece and how it manages migratory flows, governance of the Schengen area and solidarity instruments towards the “front-line” member states: these are the three issues that will dominate the meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Brussels on Thursday 8 March. The meeting will also discuss the issue of the oft-delayed enlargement of the Schengen area to include Bulgaria and Romania, over lunch, when ministers will begin their discussion of the measures to be put in place in order to make it possible for the passport-free area to be enlarged, by September if possible, as the European Council prescribed on 2 March.
A large part of the discussions is likely to be focused on Greece. In difficulty in the eurozone, it also has problems on asylum and immigration. As the neighbour of Turkey, Greece is the main entry point for illegal migrants into the EU. The reform of the Schengen area carried out in September of last year at the request of member states (and especially a handful of countries, such as France, Germany and Italy, which allow internal border controls to be re-established as a last resort) was initially in response to Greece's problems, before the events of Lampedusa.
Greece's fellow EU-member states are annoyed by its slowness in dealing with asylum seekers, its reception capacity and detention centres, and its poor border management, and this despite the European funding that has been, and will continue to be, allocated to it for that purpose. Member states can no longer send back any asylum seekers who entered the EU by that country back to Greece because of a series of Court of Human Rights rulings banning such transfers: hence the urgency for the others to resolve the Greek problems.
The Commission has submitted a report to ministers, indicating that Greece has made some progress, for example, on the appointment of administrative agencies, on reception infrastructure for asylum seekers and on voluntary or forced repatriation of migrants. It also flags up a series of black spots, however, for instance, in the Evros region where it has called on the Greek authorities urgently to put in place an action plan to improve the humanitarian situation and the living conditions of migrants being held. All the Commission's recommendations will be discussed by ministers. An idea, from Denmark, will be tabled on Thursday, a source has revealed: the extension of the EU taskforce for Greece to migration issues or the creation of several similar teams which go directly to the countries of origin of the migrants for discussions with the authorities. A number of home affairs ministers, including those of France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria, met on Wednesday 7 to discuss these possibilities.
This pre-meeting was expected to broach the broader issue of Schengen area governance. Conclusions on “political guidance” of the area, close to French hearts, are likely to be adopted on Thursday taking on board the main developments since the Lampedusa crisis and the Arab Spring. What is the point of this guidance? It is to set up collective discussion, to move towards greater joint discipline, to have focused debates - as on Greece, for example - and thereafter ministerial discussion of Commission reports at least once every six months. These reports would be a sort of “health check” for the Schengen area and would set out what “urgently needs to be done”, a source said. Ministers would clearly be putting themselves on the front line, taking over debates seen hitherto as the domain of experts.
Another conclusion expected on Thursday is how far the countries of the north are prepared to go to help those of the south which are directly confronted with the arrival of migrants. These conclusions will be a sort of list of tools at the disposal of these countries, between crisis management mechanisms, action plans, and sending Frontex or European Asylum Support Bureau Office missions. The countries of the north make no bones about it: this toolkit is the quid pro quo for giving up the inclusion in the Dublin regulation of the mechanism for suspending transfers of asylum seekers, long sought by the Commission and the countries of the south. The Commission itself has substituted an early warning mechanism.
There will be little mention of the asylum package at this meeting. The Danish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers will give an update on progress. Member states have pledged to find a common asylum scheme by the end of this year, validating the five texts of the package, the Dublin regulation, the qualifications directives, conditions for the reception of asylum seekers and the proposal on Eurodac, the database of fingerprints of asylum seekers. Some countries are reasonably confident that the 2012 deadline will be met, though on condition that the Commission agrees to the Council request that police forces have access to the Eurodac database. Without this, “we'll never get there”, said a source representing a large country. (SP/transl.rt)