Brussels, 13/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - At its weekly meeting on Wednesday 13 January, the Commission discussed the state of play with regard to measures taken to address the refugee crisis. It again called on the member states to put the decisions they have taken into effect and on the Schengen countries to return to normal as quickly as possible, just as Denmark announced that same day that it wanted to extend border controls at its internal borders by 20 days.
“2016 must see clear and tangible results in regaining control of irregular flows and of our borders”, said Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans. Among the measures to be put into effect are the “hotspots”, which must become fully operational and which are pre-requisites for implementation of the relocation decisions agreed in September.
Timmermans called on the member states to adopt as quickly as possible the proposals brought forward by the Commission in mid-December on putting in place a European border and coast guard agency. This year, Schengen must return to its normal way of working, he stressed. Migrants arriving in the EU must be properly registered and have their fingerprints taken. The Commission awarded Greece €1.36 million on 13 January for the purchase of 90 Eurodac machines that will allow it to fingerprint migrants.
The first vice-president also called for progress to be made on implementing the decisions on relocating 160,000 people over two years: so far there have been only 272 relocations of people from Greece and Italy to other countries. Timmermans called, too, for those who have no right to international protection to be returned to their countries of origin. Cooperation with third countries must also be improved.
Timmermans spoke, too, of his visit to Turkey on 10 and 11 January and said he had been “encouraged” by the proactive attitude of the authorities there. In the days prior to his visit, he had been critical of the slowness in reducing the flow of migrants to the EU. He welcomed certain measures put in place, such as the delivery of Turkish work permits to Syrian refugees.
The Commission will publish a number of proposals in 2016, including, in March, reform of the Dublin regulation and, before the end of the year, measures on legal migration and tackling human trafficking. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)