Brussels, 29/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 29 January, the Liberal group at the European Parliament unveiled a Community action plan to tackle the refugee crisis which, according to Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), “is starting to get beyond our control”.
Exceptional situations require exceptional measures. The Liberals suggest that the European Council of 18 and 19 February activate an article of the Treaty on the functioning of the EU (78.3), which authorises the Council of the EU to take temporary measures aiming to support one or more member states facing an emergency situation, in this case characterised by a sudden influx of migrants from third countries. On this basis, the EU would immediately set in place a rapid reaction force to respond to the migration situation ('European rapid refugee emergency force' or ERREF), with “2000 national and European civil servants” and responsible, “in cooperation with the Greek authorities”, for the border between Greece and Turkey, Verhofstadt said. “No new regulations” will be necessary to do this, he said. This force, which would act under the authority of the European Commission, would be competent to receive asylum seekers, register them (taking fingerprints) and granting asylum rights.
In a second phase, the ERREF force would come under the scope of the future European coastguard and border guard corps, the creation of which was proposed in December of last year by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11454). This proposal must be adopted as soon as possible and “any member states which oppose the creation of the European corps must leave the Schengen zone”, according to the manifesto of the Liberals. They believe that an envelope of €600 million will be required to allow this European corps to function properly, a sum which admittedly corresponds to “five times the current budget of the agency Frontex”, but which is in fact very low compared to the resources deployed in the United States to protect their borders, the former Belgian Prime Minister stressed.
Of the €3 billion earmarked to finance the EU/Turkey action plan to stem the flood of migrants into the EU (see EUROPE 11441), €1 billion should be allocated directly to the UNHCR agency of the United Nations to improve living conditions in refugee camps, and €2 billion should be distributed directly to the refugees in these camps, to allow them to meet their basic requirements. Stressing that the United Nations had cut the amount of money distributed to the refugees from 27 to 7 dollars a month, Verhofstadt said that the envelope of €2 billion would allow each refugee €80 per month, to help ensure that the persons in question do not undertake a hazardous voyage to the EU.
With Greece and Italy struggling to set up migrant registration centres (hotspots), the ALDE group takes the view that these hotspots should be converted into proper reception centres operating as 'transit zones', where migrants would be received, registered, checked and provided with any healthcare required, and where the distinction would be made between refugees eligible to claim asylum in the EU and economic migrants not entitled to remain in the EU.
Furthermore, the Liberals are calling for a new single asylum application procedure in Europe. According to their manifesto, “criteria linked to the country of first entry would be removed in favour of a fair and obligatory distribution mechanism between the member states”, on the basis of “objective” criteria such as population and wealth. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)