Brussels, 18/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Thursday 17 December for the sixth time in 2015 on the migration crisis, the European leaders focused - unsurprisingly - on the protection of the external borders of the Schengen area of free movement.
They insisted on the need to establish systematic security checks and again called for the failures that have been noted to be remedied as regards the decisions on relocating 160,000 people in the EU and setting up hotspots (registration centres) for migrants entering the EU. The flows of arrivals have now reached 4,000 people per day.
The leaders also had an initial exchange of views on the European Commission's proposals to create a future European border and coast guard agency, which as a last resort would be granted the right to intervene in a sensitive section of the EU's common borders even if the member state concerned did not make a specific request for this (see EUROPE 11454). When it was presented, this arrangement was considered as a possible blow to national sovereignty.
“The debate has been calmed quite a lot”, a diplomatic source nevertheless stated.
For European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the European leaders' discussion was the chance to note “a favourable welcome” to its proposals on border guards. “It was agreed to adopt the texts by the end of the Dutch Presidency” of the Council of the EU (at the end of June 2016), Juncker said. He also stated that the Commission would swiftly present a revision of the Dublin regulation on the right of asylum and a package on legal migration in spring 2016.
No decision as such was taken on Thursday evening on this right to intervene, which will essentially be studied at the level of EU home affairs ministers, but the 28 EU leaders agreed in their conclusions to adopt their position on this European border and coast guard agency “under the Dutch Presidency”.
Reluctance. For some countries, like the Polish delegation, the Commission's prosposals must “be seen as a package”. The famous “right to intervene” should not be focused on alone, the Polish minister for European affairs had said during the day.
“This is certainly not a minor issue as it touches on national sovereignty”, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy stated. “It will have to be discussed, and discussed at length. And there will be a need to distinguish between countries according to the circumstances. Spain ensures the control of its borders well and we are able to do this in the future”, Rajoy said.
While awaiting these decisions, all the measures will have to be taken to remedy the weaknesses noted on certain points of Schengen's external borders, said European Council President Donald Tusk, hailing the fact that the Frontex agency and Greek government agreed to launch a RABIT operation in December (see EUROPE 11446).
When it comes to the question of the laborious process of relocating migrants who enjoy the right to asylum in the EU, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it was a case of “a non-linear but exponential learning process”. France's President François Hollande confirmed that reflections had taken place in order to bring the programmes on relocation (within the EU) and resettlement (from a third country to the EU) closer together, especially the programme for Syrian refugees currently in Turkey - which was the subject of a mini-summit on Thursday (see other article). “These resettlements can be done perfectly on condition that this comes rightly in relation to the commitments taken, and not beyond, and that sometimes this might be done by substituting relocations”, Hollande said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille-Cerise Gessant, Pascal Hansens and Mathieu Bion)