Brussels, 23/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The day after EU home affairs ministers adopted its proposal on the relocation of 120,000 asylum seekers, the European Commission unveiled a fresh series of initiatives, on Wednesday 23 September, to address migration, laying greater stress on management of the EU's external borders (see EUROPE 11394).
These measures, for the European Council which met informally on that same evening (see other article), comprise a number of strands, which include action for member states, cooperation with third countries and humanitarian aid for refugees.
The measures contained in the EU external borders strand, due to come in for intense debate on Wednesday evening, include additional funding to assist the so-called states of first entry (Greece and Italy) and those hard hit (Hungary) to manage the influx of migrants, through an increase in emergency funding, and also to beef up the activities of European agencies such as Frontex, Europol and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). These agencies are in particularly great demand in setting up “hotspots”, that is registration centres for migrants in the countries of first entry that Greece and Italy are to open.
Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos indicated that the Commission would come forward next week with a proposal to add €100 million to the relevant emergency funding, in addition to the €73 million already released by the Commission this year.
The three competent European agencies, Frontex, EASO and Europol, will receive additional funding of €1.3 million. This money will help create 60 posts for Frontex, 30 for EASO and 30 for Europol for 2015. For 2016, a package of €600 million will be provided to increase the emergency funding budget and support the operation of the European agencies.
The Commission has also announced budgetary measures to address the external dimension of the migration challenge supporting the World Food Programme and increasing aid for Syrian refugees who have sought shelter in neighbouring countries, such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan (see other article). In all, humanitarian aid measures amount to €1.7 billion.
Proposals on European coast guards and a permanent resettlement mechanism. Beyond figures, the Commission made other announcements following its weekly meeting on Wednesday. A legislative proposal will be brought forward before the end of this year to establish a European Coast Guard, as Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had indicated in his State of the Union address (see EUROPE 11385).
At the end of 2015, the Frontex mandate will also be amended as the Commission had announced at the end of May in its migration agenda (see EUROPE 11314). The aim will be to facilitate coordination by Frontex of the return of those people who have no right to international protection in the EU.
In March 2016, a proposal to put in place a permanent refugee resettlement mechanism will be brought forward. Unlike the permanent refugee relocation mechanism that was proposed at the start of September, the resettlement mechanism will apply to refugees currently living in UN camps in third countries.
The Commission also repeated that it would present a package of measures in March 2016 on legal economic migration and a revision of the blue card directive.
2016 will also be the year of the revision of the Dublin regulation, which has faced a hail of criticism. Timmermans and Avramopoulos said on Wednesday that the current system had shown its limits. Avramopoulos said that the decisions made by Germany to suspend application of the regulation for Syrians had contributed to the chaos and the “collapse of the Dublin system”. While the temporary and permanent refugee relocation mechanisms already form an amendment to the Dublin regulation, the debate to be had on this matter in 2016 will allow a more in-depth reform of the system, opined Timmermans.
The Commission also set out on Wednesday what it understood by “hotspots”, a vague term for the support teams helping member states register and fingerprint migrants. “We've been talking about 'hotspots' for five months and no one really knows what they are”, acknowledged Avramopoulos. The Commission has decided now to speak only of support teams in registration centres. These teams will be made up of experts from EASO, Frontex and Europol and will support the member states' own staff in centres which are to be built or which already exist in the member states, particularly in Italy and Greece.
The Commission has set itself the task of working with the member states concerned, from the end of next week, to launch the registration and relocation process for asylum seekers. The member states which are feeling the full brunt of the migratory pressure will, therefore have to finalise their roadmaps between now and then, the Commission says, though Greece, which has been accused of registering barely 5% of the migrants who arrive, is struggling to implement the measure. Member states which are under pressure can also seek activation of RABIT teams, Frontex intervention teams to provide assistance to member states which have already been used in Greece.
Flood of infringement procedures. Alongside these new measures, the Commission opened 40 new infringement procedures against member states for incorrect transposition of the directives in the asylum package. Two reasoned opinions are to be sent to Bulgaria and Spain with regard to the directive setting out the conditions to be met by asylum seekers (2011/95); eighteen letters of formal notice relating to the revised directive on asylum procedures (2013/32); nineteen letters of formal notice with regard to the reception conditions directive (2013/33); a second supplementary letter of formal notice to Greece for violation of certain conditions provisions of the reception conditions directive and the asylum procedures directive, the Commission highlighting “serious deficiencies” in the Greek system.
Timmermans noted that, currently, only five member states are correctly applying EU asylum rules. In the view of Avramopoulos, it is essential that all the rules that have been adopted are applied. These rules, supposed to harmonise standards across the member states, are meant to prevent “asylum shopping”, the commissioner added, in addition to preventing the “secondary movements of asylum seekers” so feared by member states. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)