Brussels, 18/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 May, the European Commission played down the recent declarations made by the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, according to which France would oppose the introduction of “migrant quotas”. It said that it was, on the contrary, confident of obtaining French support for one of the flagship proposals in its European Agenda on Migration.
On Saturday 16 May during a visit to Menton, Valls indicated that France would oppose quotas on migrants. On 13 May, the European Commission presented this as a principle in its European Agenda on Migration (see EUROPE 11314). According to Valls, this vision “never corresponded to French proposals”. Two days earlier, the French Home Secretary, Bernard Cazeneuve, however, publicly supported this idea of introducing quotas.
On Monday the Commission's spokesperson' services said, “we have been in contact with Manuel Valls and his cabinet and we explained to him that there is no incompatibility”. The spokesperson for Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos from Greece, who is in charge of this dossier, explained: “We are not preparing a system for all migrants but for a specific group of migrants needing international protection and who are in an urgent situation for a limited duration”. The Commission therefore appears confident that France will support its proposals in this connection.
France approves refugee quotas outside EU but not migrant quotas on those already in EU
The French position, however, still requires clarification. France is concerned that the emergency mechanism proposed by the Commission to take the pressure off Italy, Malta and Greece, which are currently overwhelmed by the numbers of migrants arriving, will allow those described as “economic migrants”, who are not seeking political asylum but are essentially seeking work in Europe, to come in.
At this stage, France is effectively open about the idea of introducing a quota system for refugees, mainly Syrians and who are currently being cared for in third countries and UNHCR emergency camps. In this specific case, France is in favour of a fair distribution between the EU28. On the other hand, it appears much more cautious with regard to the question of migrants of whom certain can, nonetheless, legitimately claim international protection and who have already arrived on European shores. According to one diplomatic source on Monday in a backdrop to the Foreign Affairs Council (see other article), the term “quotas” will be unacceptable to France. The same source added, however, that “we will still discuss this before the end of May” when the Commission makes its proposals on quotas official. France is unreservedly in favour, however, of the “hotspot” draft presented on Wednesday 13 May, which consists in helping countries on the front line to rapidly identify migrants who can claim asylum and those who have to be sent back to their countries of origin.
On Monday, the Italian Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said that he hoped that France would not back track on the question of quotas for migrants. According to Ansa, he said that “I believe that this is more about a request for clarification than a rejection”.
Spain cautious too
Our same source added that the response from member states to the Commission's “migration” agenda during the Foreign Affairs Council was rather cool. At this stage, except for the United Kingdom, which has been very vociferous on this subject and has categorically rejected the Commission plans, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Latvia, have also expressed significant reservations about these quota systems.
Spain has also said that it would not, in principle, reject the quotas system and said that it was prepared to show solidarity in this respect but it also said that it believed the criteria set out by the Commission were insufficient. Spain would like unemployment rates to be taken more into account in the criteria for distributing among the different countries, although this only accounts for 10% in the current total calculation, as opposed to 40% respectively for national GDP, 40% for the size of the population and 10% for the number of migrants already taken into the country in question. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Garcia-Margallo, said “We need efforts that are both proportionate and realistic”.
The Commission has called on member states to make a decision on this question soon. The Commission would like a decision by the EU 28 by the time of the European summit at the end of June, so that it will be possible to activate these mechanisms in July. (Solenn Paulic)