Brussels, 26/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - This Wednesday 27 May, the European Commission is to flesh out the proposals it recently announced in the framework of the European Agenda on Migration (see EUROPE 11314). Specifically, it will state the number of people arriving on European shores and eligible for international protection who can be “redistributed” among the member states.
According to press reports which appeared this weekend and were confirmed in documents of which EUROPE has had sight and which were circulated on 26 May, the Commission is expected to propose to the member states to “share out” 40,000 people over two years, 24,000 from Italy and 16,000 from Greece. At this stage, the mechanism will benefit only Italy and Greece, and not Malta. The island is not subject to flows of comparable size, the document says, which means that it does not meet the activation criteria of the so-called Article 78.3 mechanism. As a member state, Malta will be able to ask for the system to be triggered in the future if it finds itself faced with a sudden and difficult-to-manage influx of migrants.
No retroactivity. The European institution is also expected to clarify that this resettlement plan will apply in practice only to nationals of Syria and Eritrea and, most importantly, is not expected to be retroactive. Basically, it will only cover future arrivals, once the draft has been adopted at the Council (qualified majority is required) and the individuals, nearly 60,000 according to UN estimates, who have arrived in Italy and Greece in the last months and weeks will have to stay put and be dealt with under the usual criteria of the so-called Dublin regulation. This stipulates that the country responsible for an asylum application is the one in which the migrant first entered European territory.
The Commission is expected to propose that this resettlement system for migrants will be rolled out over the next two years. The figure of 40,000 corresponds to 40% of the total number of requests for protection made to Italy and Greece in 2014, the documents says. The drafts go on to state that the member states will receive €6,000 for each person hosted on their territory. This emergency mechanism will run for just 24 months and will cover only those nationalities of migrants with a 75% asylum recognition rate. A budget of €240 million could be earmarked for this mechanism.
On 13 May, the Commission also stated that 20,000 refugees currently hosted in UN camps in third countries, particularly neighbouring countries to Syria, will be taken in by the member states over two years. This figure has not changed and is the one the Commission will propose to the member states this Wednesday in a draft recommendation to the Council.
The distribution criteria decided upon for both relocation and resettlement are also expected to remain unchanged, a European source stated on Tuesday lunchtime, and will remain at 40% for national GDP, 40% for population size, 10% for the unemployment rate and 10% for the number of individuals already being hosted. According to the documents seen by EUROPE, the Commission is expected to state that countries facing a high level of asylum requests and with a high unemployment rate will have fewer people to “relocate”.
The Commission will announce other proposals this Wednesday, including: - an action plan to tackle smugglers and traffickers; - the new operational plan of Operation Triton will also be presented, this time drawn up by the Frontex Agency and the Italian authorities (see EUROPE 11301); - a consultation on the “blue card” directive will also be launched, together with guidelines taking digital fingerprints.
This system of “quotas” for refugees and asylum seekers to be divided between the member states got a fairly cool reception in the wake of the presentation of this Agenda. The United Kingdom, which has derogations and “opt-in” rights, has announced that it will not be taking part and the countries of Eastern Europe, such as Poland and the Baltic states, are also opposed to a system for the obligatory redistribution of migrants.
France has sent out negative signals, as has Madrid, which wants unemployment to carry more weight in the criteria decided upon. However, the Commission does not seem to be interpreting these signals as categorical refusals. It hopes that the home affairs ministers will be able to give its proposals their blessing in Luxembourg on 16 June. (Solenn Paulic)