Brussels, 20/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - As storm clouds gather around the European Commission's agenda on migration, especially with regard to the envisaged quota system for asylum seekers and refugees (see EUROPE 11314), a strong majority of MEPs, in Strasbourg on Wednesday 20 May, called on the Council to support the proposals and to turn commitment into definite action.
“What are European citizens to think when they see television pictures of the tragedies that are taking place in the Mediterranean? The answer is clear: we need a European response”, argued EPP Group leader Manfred Weber (Germany), conceding that the debate is taking place within his group too. “The EPP Group welcomes the solidarity mechanism that has just been proposed and still has to be fleshed out. Furthermore, we have to be sure that those people who do not meet the criteria for asylum are sent back to their countries”, he said. The leader of the S&D Group, Gianni Pittella (Italy) said that what the Commission is proposing is “historic” and “we must seize this opportunity to show that Europe can function”. The Liberal leader in the Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium) shared this view. “We have assumed our responsibilities”, he told Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos, who were present in the Chamber, “something the Council has not”. “I condemn those member states which officially say that they are for solidarity but which oppose the Article 78.3 mechanism”, he added, referring specifically to France, which is lukewarm on the idea of migrant quotas (see EUROPE 11316). For the Greens/EFA Group, “the Commission has to be congratulated for its proposals”, said Judith Sargentini (Netherlands), while deploring that, in Council, the only approach on which there is any agreement “consists of tougher border controls”.
Speaking for the Conservative ECR Group, Timothy Kirkhope (UK) said that quotas are not a solution. “Every person must be able to ask for asylum in the country where he or she first arrives. This must not happen under constraint”, he suggested, opining that “quotas do not make a strategy”. The ECR Group will nevertheless cooperate on the Eurodac regulation and on reinforcing the Frontex Agency.
Detailed proposals from the Commission on Wednesday 27 May. The Commission said again that it had no intention of making entry easier for economic migrants. “This is not about migration in general but about the extreme crisis situation that demands a clear response”, stated Timmermans once more, repeating that any person not eligible for international protection would be returned to his/her country of origin. “Those people in need of protection will be relocated to other member states; the Commission has a very clear system of calculation”, he added, seeming to signal that the Commission has no intention of backing down.
The Commission is expected to set out the details of its migration agenda on 27 May and, in addition to an action plan on illegal immigration and reinforcing Frontex, will detail how the 20,000 refugees currently in UN camps and the 60,000 people who have arrived in Italy, Malta and Greece over the last few weeks are to be relocated. It is how to share out these people among the other member states that the Commission still has to decide. However, a European source has said that “we will not change our criteria”. The distribution formula in question is to be calculated on national GDP, population size and, to a lesser degree, the unemployment rate and the number of asylum seekers already taken in.
Already a blocking minority? Spain has already stated that more account should be taken of the unemployment rate. France argues that it already receives large numbers of asylum requests and refugees from Syria. The French stance, if it remains among the refusers, which already number Poland, Hungary, Latvia and the Czech Republic in addition to the United Kingdom and possibly Spain, could prevent a qualified majority being formed in Council. The view of the French government remains, however, difficult to read: it says it is in favour of an emergency mechanism for relocating people in need of international protection and open to the idea of sharing out refugees, including Syrian refugees, while rejecting quotas.
In Berlin on Tuesday, French President François Hollande stated that there was “no question of quotas of immigrants”, while arguing for “better sharing of refugees in the EU”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was hopeful that there could “very soon be a joint French-German position”. She said that parts of the Commission proposal, such as what was to happen to those who could not claim asylum, merited closer attention, AFP reports.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke on Italian television on Tuesday evening of his disappointment at these negative reactions. He said he would be prepared to recover the bodies of the migrants who lose their lives in the latest major tragedy in the Mediterranean and force an EU reaction so that those who claim not to have seen anything stop looking elsewhere (our translation throughout). (Solenn Paulic)