Brussels, 22/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels for an extraordinary EU Council aiming to overcome the differences of opinion observed a week earlier, particularly with the member states of the eastern EU, the European home affairs ministers finally managed to adopt a decision on the emergency resettlement of 120,000 people in need of international protection within the member states. The Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU was, however, obliged to force the matter and move to a qualified majority vote, contrary to what it had hoped would be the case.
“We would have preferred consensus; we tried, but some countries did not rally”, said the Luxembourg minister responsible for asylum and migration, Jean Asselborn, who took this decision fairly quickly, early afternoon on Tuesday. And it was by an “overwhelming majority” that the home affairs ministers approved this temporary resettlement mechanism, he said, with only Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania voting against. Finland abstained, according to one source, whilst Poland, which felt torn between its proximity to the so-called Visegrad countries and the rest of its European counterparts, with the further factor of general elections to be held in October, finally ended up voting in favour of the resettlement measures.
In practice, Tuesday's decision will be binding upon all member states (with the exception of countries with opt-out or opt-in rights) and the countries which voted against on Tuesday will not be able to refuse to take their fair share of asylum seekers. In any case, the European Commission stressed, through its first vice-president, Frans Timmermans, that it will make sure that the decision is fully applied by all of the member states. Last week, however, the Commission said that it would be hard to force countries to take asylum seekers they do not want.
The decision adopted on Tuesday relates to the resettlement of 120,000 people over two years from Greece and Italy, with Hungary no longer to benefit from the mechanism. In the first year, 66,000 people from Italy and Greece will be resettled and Hungary will also have to take some of these asylum seekers onto its soil (its 'quota' has been set at 1,294 people over the two years).
The 54,000 people who were initially to be resettled from Hungary will theoretically be allocated to Greece and Italy in the second year. However, after 12 months and intensive monitoring of the migration situation in the member states, the Commission could propose a different form of reallocation, to the benefit of one or more other member states in difficulties. During the course of the negotiations on Monday evening, a European diplomat reported on Tuesday, Germany asked to be considered to benefit from this reserve of 54,000, before withdrawing the request the next day. Germany or Poland - which was particularly concerned at the situation in Ukraine and a possible influx of Ukrainian refugees - are, however, still countries which could take up this 'reserve' in the second year.
As the ministers had already indicated on 14 September, the adopted decision no longer includes the temporary solidarity clause, in other words a financial compensation mechanism made available to the member state unable to host refugees (it had been laid down at 0.002% of the GDP of the country, to be paid into the European budget). This financial clause offended the sensibilities of some of the member states. The final decision therefore stipulates that no member state is allowed to refuse its quota but, should it experience an exceptional situation, such as a natural disaster, it could delay the resettlement of 30% of its share until 12 months after the entry into force of the decision (in other words, in three years' time) and notify its request to the Commission. The Council would then decide if the request was legitimate. Any member state subjected to a sudden influx of migrants onto its territory could see its obligations suspended as regards the resettlement of the 120,000, by calling for article 78§3 of the Treaty to be activated.
The ministers also deleted any reference to the obligatory nature of the distribution and also removed the distribution key chosen by the Commission, even though these figures, which were proposed by the Commission on 9 September, were adopted as they stood. However, they were recalculated downwards due to the participation of Hungary, and also countries such as Ireland or Denmark, which have volunteered to take some of these 120,000 asylum seekers.
Nonetheless, this desire to remove the Commission's obligatory criteria (distribution on the basis of GDP, population size, unemployment rate and hosting efforts) essentially seems to be linked to the forthcoming discussions on the permanent and obligatory distribution mechanism which was also presented on 9 September. This configuration, which is midway between a binding system and voluntary acceptance of the Commission's figures, allowed certain countries to swallow the compromise. The Polish minister, Piotr Stachanczyk, said that he was fully satisfied, adding that all of Poland's demands had been taken into account. “There are safeguards which will allow this mechanism to be suspended”, he stressed in particular. Of the 66,000 people, Poland is to take 5,082, “but this figure will certainly not be reached, as Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and probably Iceland have announced that they will participate in the process”, he said, calculating that Poland's 'quota' would probably fall to around “4,600 or 4,800”. This “is manageable”, he concluded.
Asselborn also welcomed Poland's position, stating that the country had “understood the importance” of implementing European solidarity. Defending the use of the vote, the Luxembourg minister said that the EU would have come out even more “divided” if no decision had been reached.
The French home affairs minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, also welcomed a balanced agreement and, although the meeting “isn't the end of the story which links us together in view of the migration situation, this decision made by the Council undeniably constitutes an important stage which calls for more, notably as regards the controls of our borders and dialogue with the countries of origin”. The French minister agreed with his German counterpart, Thomas de Maizière, “on the fact that Europe cannot take all of the people currently in refugee camps. From this point of view, there is much work to be done with Turkey, with Jordan, with Lebanon”, the minister added. “We quite obviously need to come to the assistance of refugees close to their region of origin”, said Asselborn. European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos stressed that the Commission was fully committed to implementing measures to “support the transit countries and find solutions in the countries of origin to fight trafficking and increase rates of return”.
Summit relieved of the decision on the 120,000. Freed from having to make the resettlement decision, the heads of state and government will, at their informal summit on 23 September, discuss “immediate priority actions necessary to respond to instability in our neighbourhood and the pressure of refugees on the neighbour countries”, the Commission stated in a press release. The summit will provide the opportunity to discuss cooperation with the countries of the Western Balkans, Turkey and other countries close to Syria, such as Lebanon and Jordan. The heads of state and government will also discuss diplomatic efforts to be made to resolve the Syrian crisis. Budgetary support to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme, as well as the implementation of the European conclusions on returns and readmission, will be other points discussed by the European leaders. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille-Cerise Gessant and Jan Kordys)