Brussels, 04/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 4 September, the European Commission confirmed that during his State of the Union speech in Strasbourg on 9 September, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will unveil a package of draft legislation to deal with the migration crisis. The new rules will focus on how the EU can deal with migrants fleeing from war and requiring international protection, and will comprise at least three items of legislation and other aspects - the details of which European Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos will present at a press conference later in the day on 9 September.
More than 100,000 individuals arrived in Greece in July most from war zone such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and more than 350,000 have arrived in the EU as a whole since the start of the year. The Commission is expected to unveil a new proposal to rehouse 120,000 people from Greece, Italy and Hungary in other member states, as it suggested on 3 September (see EUROPE 11381). This comes on top of the proposal made on 27 May to relocate 40,000 people from Greece and Italy, which the Council of Ministers of the EU is still in the process of adopting.
This new emergency system will include Hungary, where 50,000 people have arrived over the space of a few months. The same legal basis is likely to be used as for the May proposals and the weighting criteria will be much the same - in other words, based on the size of the country, its wealth and how many asylum-seekers it has already accepted, explained a source.
On Thursday 3 September, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a press conference after a visit to Brussels that no details had been discussed with Juncker, but the latter had mentioned the Commission's plans to be unveiled on 9 September and which Hungary may benefit from without giving any details, explained the Commission in an official statement.
A European source explains that Hungary has agreed to the idea of a mechanism to relieve pressure on its country but rejected any idea of a hotspot requiring the arrival of staff from Frontex, EASO or Europol. Such a measure would turn Hungary into a front-line state, which Orban reportedly refuses to accept.
The Hungarian conservative leader did not officially close the door on Thursday to this relocation mechanism, explaining that he could consider and discuss it - but only if one talks about the EU's “external borders”. He repeated his opposition to a quota system, saying it smacked of illegal migration.
Other proposals the Commission is expected to unveil are: a permanent and compulsory relocating mechanism for asylum-seekers that could be activated in the event of a sudden crisis. This measure would rely on co-decision with the European Parliament and benefit any EU member state facing the arrival of too many migrants to be able to cope. As part of this permanent system, the Commission is examining the idea of an alternative contribution for countries refusing to house migrants. A source said these countries would have to justify their decision to the Commission and explain why they cannot take some of the burden from other countries and would also be required to come up with objective criteria. If this justification is deemed legitimate, they would then be required to provide financial aid to other countries which accept asylum-seekers.
Other draft legislation will include rules governing the return of migrants who cannot claim asylum. The list of safe countries may, however, not be finalised in time for 9 September, but Juncker will give an overview in his speech.
Funding for Greece to be released over the next five days. Ahead of this package of new rules, Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos travelled to Athens and Kos on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September, where they witnessed the introduction of a hotspot in the Piraeus and saw for themselves the situation in Kos. Greece gave assurances about organising the allocation of funding, as Athens is due to receive aid of €33 million over the next five days, explained Avramopoulos. The two commissioners said a system was needed to register migrants at all points of entry into Greece, even though there are not any hotspots on islands such as Kos.
France and Germany repeat their backing for a quota system, the Visegrad group says no. The permanent compulsory relocation mechanism to be unveiled by the European Commission is already being recommended by France and Germany, which made their support explicit in a joint letter published on 3 September. The German government backs this support for the system, but it took a battle before the French government finally accepted the idea of quotas. Countries in the Visegrad (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) explained in Prague on Friday that they totally reject the idea of quotas. In a joint statement, the four countries' leaders said such a permanent compulsory mechanism was unacceptable and instead measures were needed to tackle the problem at the roots by increasing aid to transit countries and stepping up patrols by Frontex.
The United Kingdom announces that it will accept more Syrian refugees. Coming under strong criticism for his refusal to participate in European mechanisms (the Council of Europe, for example, said the UK was not doing enough), the British conservative prime minister, David Cameron, said on Friday that the UK will accept thousands more Syrians under the British £900 million rehousing programme. (Solenn Paulic)