Brussels, 03/06/2015(Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the G6 of Home Affairs Ministers, in Moritzburg on Tuesday 2 June, the European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that he was prepared to re-discuss the proposals presented on 27 May regarding the redistribution of 40,000 migrants between the member states, in particular the redistribution key to be decided upon by the Executive, which has raised concerns among several member states.
On Monday 1 June, France and Germany issued a common position in which they stated that although they supported the proposals for a solidarity-based emergency mechanism in theory, the distribution key chosen, based on national GDP, population size, the unemployment rate and number of asylum seekers already hosted, was still lopsided and called for further talks (see EUROPE 11325).
In a statement, Commissioner Avramopoulos welcomed “France and Germany's support for our proposals”. “And, of course, we are prepared to discuss the implementation details of the mechanisms with the member states”, he added, before going on to state that the Commission's proposals to 'redistribute' 40,000 migrants in need of international protection and 20,000 refugees from UN camps in third countries over the next two years were “fairly reasonable, given that 6,000 migrants have arrived in the last few days alone”.
Although the stance taken by Berlin and Paris, which was published on 1 June, has been interpreted in different ways, the Commission has no doubt that it has the backing of both capitals for its emergency mechanism and is still expressing optimism at the chances of achieving a qualified majority at the Council, most likely in exchange for a few tweaks to the criteria.
However, there is one potential problem: several European sources were by no means certain that an agreement will be possible in Luxembourg on 16 June, at the meeting of the Home Affairs Ministers. “It's still a bit soon”, one source told us. However, there will not be another Home Affairs Council until October. Waiting four months to adopt the mechanism would be somewhat at odds with the Commission's aim of responding to the current emergency situation in Italy and Greece.
However, the emergency mechanism could be adopted by any configuration of the Council, another source pointed out, if the Presidency of the EU, which may be Latvia or Luxembourg, feels that the debate has made sufficient progress at Coreper. However, it could just as easily decide to wait for the October Home Affairs Council, if the work is not close enough to fruition.
The forthcoming talks of the ministers in Luxembourg is in any case expected to provide a few initial indications of the scenario decided upon. The European Council, to meet on 25 and 26 June, is also expected to send out a political signal regarding these measures proposed by the Commission. (Solenn Paulic)