Luxembourg, 10/07/2015(Agence Europe) - The Home Affairs Ministers of the EU, meeting informally in Luxembourg on Thursday 9 July, had good news for the European Commission, as they announced that they were prepared to welcome more refugees fleeing war, currently housed in third countries, than the 20,000 threshold proposed by the European institution.
On the other hand, they have not yet been able to finalise the distribution key for the 40,000 migrants in need of international protection, 24,000 from Italy and 16,000 from Greece, and a further extraordinary meeting of the home affairs ministers will be held in Brussels on 20 July to make the final decision on this, the Luxembourg home affairs minister, Jean Asselborn, announced after the Luxembourg Council.
“The subject is difficult and sensitive” and “we are not quite there yet”, the Luxembourger acknowledged. “For resettlement, we are well above the 20,000, but for relocalisation, we need our second wind”, he said, adding that this figure was “overshot by around 2,000 at this point”, the minister subsequently clarified.
Earlier that day,the German and French home affairs ministers, Thomas de Maizière and Bernard Cazeneuve, also explained that agreement had not yet been reached on the distribution of these 40,000 people, but that they remained confident that this objective would be met. Berlin and Paris had already officially announced their contribution in terms of numbers (see EUROPE 11355).
In fact, a number of countries declined on Thursday to put forward any figures, among them Spain and Austria. The Austrian Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner held bilateral consultations with some of her colleagues in the evening. The Spanish minister, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, explained during the course of the day that the Spanish hosting system still needed to be assessed before making any commitments. “Other countries also want to follow parliamentary procedures before submitting their figures”, a European source explained. According to one source, Hungary has refused in any case to contribute to either mechanism, the country having also just confirmed that a fence is to be built on the border with Serbia.
Countries associated with the EU, on the other hand, have also announced their participation in the two mechanisms, Jean Asselborn explained. These are Switzerland, Norway, but also Liechtenstein. However, the Luxembourg minister also flagged up issues some of the member states are having in committing to this distribution.
“There are countries which have been harder hit than others, such as Greece, Italy, but also Hungary, it has to be said, and Austria, where there is also a problem with migrants turning up on the borders and it has to be said that Dublin 2 is not working everywhere as it should”. The minister also reiterated the commitment to hold an international conference on the Balkans and migratory pressure on Hungary and Serbia.
The 'hotspots' start in Sicily
Stressing that “highly constructive” discussions had been held, although not all of the objectives had been reached, the European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said that the European immigration policy was beginning to fall into place. The Commission argues that it is “vital to achieve the general objective laid down” of 40,000, he said, going on to reiterate that an extra €240 million will be available to the member states over the next two years for relocalisation purposes, which will make it possible to give the participating countries €6,000 for every refugee re-localised.
The European agencies are also being mobilised to implement 'hotspots' in Italy and Greece, frontline reception centres for migrants designed to select the migrants to be re-localised and those to be sent out of the EU. On this point, “genuine progress has been made”, the Commissioner said. The first centres have started to open their doors in Sicily, with experts from European agencies such as the EASO and Frontex.
With regard to this, the two officials have reacted to warnings issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, who on Thursday expressed concern at the fact that Greece is currently hosting more war refugees than Italy, which is faced mainly with an influx of so-called economic migrants. Greece arguably therefore requires more assistance than Italy. The two men acknowledged that Greece was receiving more people fleeing conflicts but Italy, by the route from Niger and Libya, was also receiving people in situations of “abject poverty”. The arrivals of migrants may also very soon end up swamping the island of Lampedusa, Sicily.
Commissioner Avramopoulos declined to confirm that there was any imbalance in the Commission's proposals on the re-localisation of 24,000 people from Italy and 16,000 from Greece. “I am not a great fan of figures”, explained the Commissioner, who feels that the main thing is to start this experimental phase of 'hotspots', with a view to increasing the figures at a later date. “However, it is extremely important that this first phase is a success”, Avramopoulos stressed.
According to another source, it was also easier to set these centres in place in Italy, as there is already infrastructure in place, but also in view of the current situation in Greece. (Solenn Paulic)