Brussels, 02/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - At a seminar in Genval on Wednesday 2 September, the European commissioners discussed the migration situation in the EU and the fresh proposals being prepared by the Commission, particularly on sharing asylum seekers among the member states and the European list of safe countries of origin, which principally concerns the Balkan states.
While the Commission has not yet detailed its timetable, these new proposals will, in all likelihood, be set out by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in his first State of the Union speech in Strasbourg on 9 September. The proposals will be formally presented at the extraordinary meeting of EU home affairs ministers scheduled for Brussels on 14 September (see EUROPE 11378).
The principles of a common list of safe countries of origin have already been articulated several times by high-ranking officials, including Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans. This list will contain the names of the Western Balkans candidate countries, whose nationals have been accused of abusing member states' asylum systems by submitting unfounded requests for international protection. The common list will harmonise the way these requests are treated across all the countries of the EU and, thus, will speed up procedures for returning unjustified asylum seekers to their country of origin.
The mechanism for sharing out asylum seekers will, as the Commission stated in May, be a permanent one which will automatically be triggered in the event of a sudden migration crisis and will impose quotas of asylum seekers on the member states. It will not refer to any one specific country, as was the case with the recent mechanism which activated Article 78.3 of the Treaty in order to ease the strain on Greece and Italy. The threshold of persons to be hosted will also be determined by documented migration trends.
For the mechanism to help Greece and Italy, the Commission based its calculations on the number of asylum requests recorded in the two countries in 2014. The figure of 40,000 people corresponded to 40% of the total number of requests for protection received by Greece and Italy in that year.
Nevertheless, it was only with great difficulty that home affairs ministers accepted the mechanism in Brussels on 20 July. They also left it up to themselves to work out how to reach the target figure of 40,000, thereby leaving some member states free, thus far, not to take any asylum seekers.
This Council decision should, therefore, be adopted without debate on 14 September, hard on the heels of the European Parliament vote on the Ska Keller report, a Council source indicated. On Wednesday 2 September at any rate, the Commission re-stated that, in line with the mechanism activated in May, the future permanent allocation system will not apply to the United Kingdom, Ireland or Denmark. Only London and Dublin will be able to opt in, should they wish.
Orban in Brussels, two commissioners in Greece. In the meantime, the president of the European Commission will, on Thursday 3 September, host a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss the situation in Hungary. Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos will then, on Monday of next week, travel to Budapest (and to Austria) and could announce support measures for Hungary. No press briefing has been arranged for after the Juncker-Orban meeting on Thursday.
On Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September, European Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos will be in Athens before later travelling to Kos. They will see for themselves the state of progress with the Piraeus “hotspot”, which is not yet operational and for which the Greek authorities have sought EU aid. An initial funding tranche of €30 million is due to be paid but the Commission is awaiting confirmation from the budgetary authorities and for Athens to make a formal request for aid from emergency funds. The Commission is also awaiting a roadmap accompanying implementation of the hotspot, the spokesperson for Commissioner Avramopoulos said on Wednesday. (Solenn Paulic)