Brussels, 10/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - With eight days to go until another European summit on the British question and refugee crisis (see other article), the European Commission again urged member states on Wednesday 10 February, to respect their commitments, particularly with regard to the relocation of refugees.
The Commission also examined the specific situation in Greece and Turkey and has called on the two countries to step up their efforts to protect the external Schengen area of free movement borders, as well as regulate the flows of migrants.
It is imperative for Greece to put the country back on the right track of the so-called Dublin rules on granting asylum in the EU. The Commission intends, however, to revise this regime next March, so that transfers of asylum seekers from other countries can in the long-term resume. These transfers had been cancelled owing to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights at the beginning of 2011 (see EUROPE 10300).
The Commission also announced new infringement procedures and granted Austria a derogation on the asylum seeker relocation system for a year.
It has not, however, authorised other member states from putting a brake on the movement on this issue and the Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, also sent a letter to EU Ministers for the Interior, to speed up their promises to take in migrants. Only 15 countries have so far made concrete commitments to resettling the 66,400 people that are supposed to have been taken in from Greece during the first year of this mechanism's operations. With regard to the promise of relocating 160,000 people, only 218 people have been relocated from Greece, since September 2015 and 279 from Italy. The Commissioner highlighted these “poor results” but he is insisting that the relocation mechanism is a useful tool and that they will, in the future, need a “permanent relocation mechanism”.
Greece must return to the Dublin rules
In concrete, the Commission adopted a recommendation on Wednesday for Greece, with regard to the urgent measures it should take to pave the way for a possible resumption in the transfer of asylum seekers from member states to this country. This recommendation is accompanied by a raft of action areas, such as improved reception capacity and living conditions for asylum seekers, as well as an appeals procedures, in the event of an asylum request being rejected.
It will then be up to the member states to decide if they are able to send asylum seekers back to Greece but who arrived in their countries when they should have firstly been registered in Greece. In 2001, the European Court ruled that these transfers were not possible given the degrading conditions in the Greek asylum system.
The Commission intends to revise the Dublin system in March and might review the key principle according to which the country in which a migrant enters is the country responsible for his/her asylum request. In the meantime, however, “Dublin is not dead”, explained Avramopoulos and although the idea is not to “add another burden on the country”, the Commission strategy rather appears to help Greece fulfil its obligations better and that its partners do not decide to re-establish in a coordinated way, controls at the Schengen area internal borders.
Progress with fingerprinting
On Wednesday, the Commission drew up a more general balance sheet of the situation in Greece and Italy and highlighted a few positive developments, such as the fact that the two countries have made progress in the registration of migrants and digital fingerprints, in keeping with the Eurodac regulation. Greece has therefore shifted from the 8% rate of fingerprinting in September 2015 to 78% in January 2016, explained the Commission in a press release. For Italy, over the same period, this rate rose from 36% to 87%.
These positive reports do not, however, conceal the delays these countries have incurred in the setting up of migrant identification and registration centres (“hotspots”). The Commission therefore points out that the shift to set up these hotspots, which partly formed the conditions for the relocation process working, has been “slow” in Greece, particularly because of the problems of personnel, infrastructure and coordination. The only hotspot operating out of 5 is in Lesbos (Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos). The Commission has directed its criticism at Italy for the same reasons and the same reasons explain the delays in opening these hotspots. Out of the six planned, only the centres at Lampedusa and Pozzalo are considered completely operational, with 100% of arrivals being fingerprinted.
The Commission also says that efforts still need to be made in terms of reception capacity for asylum seekers. Of the 50,000 places promised by Greece in October 2015 at the European mini-summit of countries concerned by the Western Balkans route, the Commission notes that Athens must still provide 17,628. In Italy, on the other hand, the Commission considers the reception capacity broadly sufficient for meeting the needs.
In a third report, the Commission has worked on the situation in the Western Balkans and notes that the reckoning has still not been made regarding these countries' promise to create 50,000 reception places for refugees. The figures put the existing reception capacity (or that which is being created) at around 25,000 places.
Turkey. Among the other reports adopted, one of the most sensitive wants the state of progress of the EU-Turkey migration action plan which was adopted at the end of November, and upon which the release of the €3 billion envelope is partly conditional (an envelope made available by the member states over two years to help the Syrian refugees currently in Turkey - see EUROPE 11440 and 11482). The EU expects Ankara to regulate the flow of migrants arriving in Greece, and to action the readmission agreement signed with the EU in 2013 which is aimed at taking back on Turkish soil the migrants who are illegally in the EU. The report notes that, while migrant flows have decreased since October, Ankara must still urgently prevent departures to the EU. On average, 2,186 people entered the EU in January 2016 (6,929 in October and 3,575 in December 2015).
The Commission notes that Turkey has taken positive decisions, such as giving work permits to Syrian refugees, but that it must still make efforts to implement the bilateral readmission agreement with Greece, and that with the EU. The agreement with the EU must be operational for June 2016. Alongside this, the EU could accelerate the move towards the visa-free regime demanded by Ankara for its nationals travelling to the EU, under the terms of the deal made between the two parties last November. Another obligation for the EU is to identify and release financing swiftly from the €3 billion envelope allocated to Turkey over two years to help the Syrian refugees.
Infringements. Among the other decisions announced by the Commission are those of sending reasoned opinions as part of infringement procedures against eight member states (Germany, Estonia, Slovenia, Greece, France, Italy, Latvia and Slovenia). These measures focus particularly on the lack of notification of national measures transposing directives on asylum-procedures and/or long-stay residents.
Austria. In addition, the Commission has authorised Austria to suspend for a year 30% of the relocations planned on its soil, due to the influx of migrants in this country. Under the decisions of September, Vienna will have to resume this share in one or two years according to how the situation develops. The Commission made the same proposal for Sweden in December. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)