Brussels, 09/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 February, during the weekly meeting of the college of commissioners, the European Commission will examine the migration situation in the EU. It will also specifically be examining a series of recommendations made to Greece and the progress achieved with the EU/Turkey action plan, which will also be the subject of a report.
On Tuesday 9 February, a European source explained that the Commission will also put forward a raft of documents on the situation in Italy, Austria and the Western Balkans, as well as draw up progress reports on all the subjects, such as, for example, the registration of migrants in Greece and Italy by way of the Eurodac regulation and at a more general level, on respect for the so-called Dublin asylum rules.
Greece is committed to finalising work on its reception and registration centres (hotspots) for migrants by 15 February. At the beginning of February, the Commission adopted an interim evaluation report that highlighted serious failures in external border management (see EUROPE 11481). On Wednesday, it will be returning to the subject of this report, which was drafted according to the terms of the Schengen area of free movement evaluation mechanism, based on in the field inspections carried out last November. This report stems from a number of recommendations for improving the situation in the field, such as the proposal to register migrants. According to two separate sources, these recommendations will also be discussed by EU permanent representatives (COREPER) in view of adoption, without debate, during the Ecofin Council
Greece will subsequently have three months to rectify the highlighted failings and avoid the EU Ministers of the Interior deciding to activate Article 26 of the Schengen Border Code in May, for a two-year period. At midday on Wednesday, however, the Commission will also be discussing another process resulting from the Schengen Evaluation Mechanism, namely, “the recommendations under Article 19”, explained one Commission source. These recommendations under Article 19, constitute the operational extension of the recommendations defined under the Schengen Evaluation Mechanism
Another source explained that this bureaucratic procedure effectively “becomes the same thing”, namely, laying the legal ground for member states to be able to decide in May whether it is appropriate or not to activate Article 26.
This is, therefore, the least procedural way in which the permanent representatives from the member states will discuss the situation in Greece, on Wednesday, where “things have not really progressed very much”, explained our last source and where the flows of migrants arriving in the EU is still significant. According to the International Migration Organisation, more than 76,000 migrants entered the EU over the first six weeks of 2016.
Turkey. On the question of Turkey, a progress report on the migration action plan negotiated in November between the EU and Ankara will also be published on Wednesday (see EUROPE 11440).
On Thursday, discussions will also take place within the context of the NATO ministerial meeting, following the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel's reference to possible NATO patrols being organised to combat trafficking networks (see EUROPE 11485). This idea received a very mixed response by Germany's partners. France did not give it a particularly warm welcome and wanted to know in what way these patrols at sea would be different from those organised within the scope of the Mare Nostrum operation, an experience that no one wants to repeat. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Mathieu Bion)