Brussels, 12/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - This could be a historic moment for common European policy on asylum if “rumours are confirmed”. It is with a great deal of hope that the Italian leader of the S&D Group at the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, awaits the European Commission's proposals on immigration. The proposals are planned for Wednesday 13 May and are likely to establish a quota system for refugees who have already arrived in the EU or who are still in the camps of the UN High Commissioner in third countries. The quota system would apportion the refugees between the member states.
“It took a while”, said Pittella over a lunch with journalists, stressing the importance of choosing Article 78§3 of the Treaty, on emergency mechanisms in cases of sudden flows of migrants, as the leaked provisional documents of the Agenda suggested. This is a very important article, Pittella underlined, in that it allows for a qualified majority at the Council and will not therefore need to be subject to some or other veto (starting with the UK, which does not want to hear about quotas). From this perspective, the situation would be more difficult for Viktor Orban's Hungary, which also rejects the quota system but does not have any possibility of opting out.
“Jean-Claude Juncker had courage and showed ambition”, Pittella stated, hoping that this system of urgently relocating migrants who have arrived on Italian shores might become permanent. In the long term, the Dublin Regulation will also have to be reviewed in this direction, Pittella said. On Tuesday, he described as “revolutionary” the fact that the front line member states would no longer be left alone to manage the sudden inflows of migrants - as has been the case for Italy, Malta and Greece for months.
The Commission's plans are also attractive to Claude Moraes (S&D, UK), chair of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, in that they deal decisively with the lack of political resolve shown by member states thus far. In Moraes' view, the lack of resolve is particularly translated by the lack of appetite among the 28 EU member states to implement the asylum package, which comprises five texts and which has generally raised the standards in the EU of taking charge of asylum seekers. Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany) was also pleased with this communication. She stressed the importance of legal immigration, especially for work reasons.
Pittella was optimistic, stating that “the majority who last week approved a common resolution on immigration will be the majority that supports the Commission's proposals”. Splits have appeared within the EPP Group, however, particularly on the issue of obligatory quotas.
Two major issues still open. “The discussions [at the College of Commissioners on Wednesday] could be long”, warned a European source, as some commissioners are not attracted to the idea of the allocation criteria. Some of them wonder, for example, about the possibility of linking the level of hosting the migrants to the level of the country's unemployment. The college will have to determine on what basis the percentages of migrants will be set - be it the density of the population, the country's GDP, or the history of hosting.
The other big issue that is still open is that of the number of refugees to be relocated to Europe from third countries. While the HCR has asked the EU to host 20,000 refugees per year, especially Syrian refugees, no figure has yet been decided upon. According to the European source, the Commission will try to decide on a figure at its meeting.
As for the quotas of migrants already in the south of the EU, these figures might only become known at the end of May, when the Commission sets out its plans. On Tuesday, the source ruled out the possibility of the Juncker-desired quota system falling apart due to the opposition of certain member states. Apart from Hungary, the UK, Ireland and Denmark have the option under the Lisbon Treaty of not taking part in asylum-related policies. Indeed, the UK has a separate system - it participates in the Dublin Regulation, in the Eurodac Regulation and, strangely, in the 2001 directive on temporary protection (a directive concocted after the war in Kosovo and the flow of Kosovans to Germany), a directive that the Commission has not chosen to use for developing its quota system. The UK does not, however, take part in the directives on the welcome conditions for asylum seekers or on asylum procedures.
Six countries grant most protection statuses. While awaiting the Commission's final proposal, Eurostat published new statistics on Tuesday, showing that in 2014 the member states granted protection to 185,000 asylum seekers, mostly Syrian (over one in three recipients was Syrian), followed by Eritreans and Afghans in smaller proportions. These positive responses to the asylum seekers were mainly given in six member states (France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Italy), Eurostat says.
More generally, the biggest number of people obtaining protection status in 2014 was recorded in Germany, Sweden, France and Italy. (Solenn Paulic)