Brussels, 14/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The heads of state or government of the EU will meet on Thursday 15 October for a fourth European summit on the migration crisis since April.
They are expected to discuss ways of reinforcing the external borders of the EU, the returns policy for economic migrants, notably by giving the agency Frontex a broader mandate and by means of cooperation with third countries, particularly Turkey, where several European officials are visiting this week to make progress on the EU/Turkey action plan (see EUROPE 11403).
On Thursday evening, the leaders are expected, among other things, to allow the agency Frontex to operate, more easily and on its own initiative, joint flights to repatriate migrants not permitted to remain in the EU. Talks will be held regarding the creation of European coastguards, which will be the subject of European Commission proposals by the end of 2015, but no consensus is expected on this subject, which the member states fear will lead to a loss of sovereignty. “Border management is an element of sovereignty, hence the reluctance of the countries to transfer a power of this competence to EU level”, a diplomatic source confirmed on Wednesday 14 October. The European leaders will hold an exchange of views on how the European coastguard would work in practice, but many feel at this stage that they would complement, “rather than replace”, the national coastguards, European source explained.
A further debate will be held about the implementation of the 'hotspots' which would handle the application of resettlement decisions for 160,000 asylum seekers over two years. The leaders will assess the state of progress with the hotspots, which are up and running in Italy and are expected to be operational in the Greek islands next week (100 further resettlements are expected to take place). The fact remains that the talks are still ongoing on the very nature of these hotspots, somewhere between just a procedure or an actual physical structure, either closed or open. The leaders may also undertake to respond to requests for reinforcements from Frontex and EASO, the two agencies having requested 775 and 370 experts respectively. At this stage, however, the Commission laments, just a few member states have answered the call, with 81 experts for EASO and just 48 for Frontex.
The leaders will also have a broader reflection on the European asylum and immigration policy and, in this framework, may discuss the future of the Dublin Regulation. On 23 September, they ruled out a reform of this tool, but an exchange of views could be held on possible changes to be made to it (see EUROPE 11395). On Wednesday, the Commission said that it still intended to reform this tool but, paradoxically, it will recommend, at the end of 2015, that transfers of asylum seekers to Greece under Dublin resume, having been suspended de facto in 2011, following a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.
'Allergic' reactions to the permanent mechanism
The European Council will not discuss the controversial permanent and obligatory mechanism for the distribution of asylum seekers, although the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, called upon the leaders to “follow this up” at a hearing before the European Parliament. According to another diplomatic source, the question of the permanent mechanism was raised during preparations for the summit. The question was ultimately side-stepped, although countries such as Italy and Greece would have liked to take it further; 14 member states are allergic to any reference to this mechanism in the conclusions, the source stressed.
On cooperation with third countries, the Europeans are expected once again to stress the returns and readmission policy by third countries of their nationals illegally entering the EU and the conditionality logic ('more for more') to encourage the countries in question to respond to the European demands. They will call on the third countries to agree to 'standard' European laissez-passer documents allowing a person to be returned from the EU to his or her country of origin or to the transit country through which he or she reached the EU. The 28 will also discuss the creation of refugee hosting centres in third countries affected by the migratory flows, but they are not expected to talk of any further solidarity efforts on the part of the Europeans, nor the possibility of offering relocation places to these countries.
Lastly, for Turkey, European leaders are expected to discuss the action plan proposed on 5 October by the European Commission to the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and to call for the corresponding preparations to be speeded up. Once adopted and implemented, this action plan may speed up the visa liberalisation process, provisional draft conclusions stress. However, the inclusion of the country on the European list of 'safe' countries, as the Commission is calling for, is not on the agenda of the summit as such. In any case, Juncker has called upon the 28 to include Turkey on this list in spite of any doubts, either on the freedom of expression or the security situation. “In spite of the doubts, I intend to put Turkey on the list of safe countries; if we feel that Turkey should not be on it, then we need to stop accession negotiations”, he said, calling on the member states to rally behind this attitude towards a partner country. He lamented the fact that Athens has refused to cooperate with Ankara in border management by means of joint patrols. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Jan Kordys and Mathieu Bion)