Brussels, 20/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country has held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU since 1 January, speaking in Strasbourg on 20 January, set a deadline of six to eight weeks for the flow of migrants to the EU to fall significantly or consequences will follow. He did not give any indication of what these might entail but they could involve the Schengen area or cooperation with Turkey.
“Pressure on the external borders has to be relieved”, he told MEPs. While it is “crucial to give refugees legal ways to come to the EU” without endangering their lives, the decisions with regard to “hotspots” also have to be adhered to and migrants registered as quickly as possible, he stressed. “Current numbers are not sustainable. There will have to be a very quick reduction in the numbers of refugees in the coming six to eight weeks”, he said a little later in the day, declining to speak of the measures envisaged if needed. The instrument with Turkey, which should in theory receive €3 billion in funding, will be decisive. “This instrument has to work”, he said.
These warnings come as the EU continues to struggle to put into effect the decisions on relocation adopted in September and on “hotspots” and as several member states, put under pressure as a result of migration flows, have one after the other re-established controls at their internal borders. On Wednesday morning, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker highlighted the economic costs of up to €3 billion of such moves. For Juncker, it is urgent to address the strengthening of the external borders with adoption of the proposals made in December and making cooperation with Turkey work.
“We are in danger of taking a route where gradually borders are closed. We have to beware of such a development”, Juncker warned. He argued that, “if everything had been implemented, we would not be going through this crisis and we would be speaking about other issues”, such as, the fact that “increasing numbers of refugees do not want to live in certain countries” (to which they are sent).
In Strasbourg, European Council President Donald Tusk had already, on Tuesday 19 January, urged member states to speed up their efforts, or face unwanted consequences. During a debate on December's European summit, Tusk, like Rutte, suggested that the member states had “two months” to resolve the refugee crisis and “bring things under control”. If this cannot be done, “we will have to suffer the serious consequences of the collapse of the Schengen area”, he warned. On this point, Juncker called on Tusk to allow an additional half day at the next European Council, which is supposed to be devoted to consideration of the UK question, so that the refugee crisis can be discussed.
Relocation and hotspots struggling.
The Commission said on Tuesday 19 January that, to date, 322 migrants had been relocated from Greece and Italy (out of the 160,000 planned over a two-year period). The Dutch prime minister said at a press conference in Strasbourg that “progress has been made” on hotspots, where migrants undergo the process of registration and identification, but this progress is still much too slow. In Italy, a third hotspot has been put in place in Pozallo, the Commission said at midday on Wednesday: Italy is due to open six hotspots.
Dublin recast.
Between revision of the Dublin system and initiatives on legal migration, the Commission is preparing a raft of proposals for the month of March. On the Dublin system, the Commission could propose removing the principle under which the first country of entry is responsible for handling the asylum applications of migrants who have arrived in the EU, the Financial Times reported on Monday 18 January.
Last week, Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told MEPs on the Parliament's civil liberties (LIBE) committee that the Commission might decide on a burden-sharing principle, the aim being to make the system more equitable.
At the moment, the Dublin system obliges Greece and Italy to take responsibility for all the asylum requests from migrants who arrive on their shores, and this, in turn, means that the member states to which the migrants (not wishing to remain in Greece or Italy) then travel and where they submit their asylum application have to send them back to these two countries. The European Court of Human Rights has also highlighted the limitations of this theoretical transfer obligation, urging member states not to return migrants to countries where the asylum system is fragile and where migrants could be subject to degrading treatment.
At the present time, “no decision has been taken” on a future Dublin system, said a European source on 20 January. Similarly, no decision has been taken on the principle of allocating asylum seekers to countries, the source added. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)