Brussels, 04/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 4 March, three days ahead of a summit with Turkey and a European Council which will once again focus on the migration situation in the European Union (see other article), the European Commission presented a roadmap to try to restore the integrity of the Schengen free-movement area, by no later than December 2016.
Taking note of the current state of disorder, to be imputed both to the migration flows to the EU, which are still felt to be too high, and to the various unilateral decisions made in the European capitals to stem these flows, the Commission has finally admitted defeat. It is putting forward the idea of activating article 26 of the Schengen Borders Code in mid-May, when the controls on the internal Schengen borders currently in place expires. “It is hard to see how the situation could be much better by then”, one source observed. The activation of this clause will allow the eight countries of the Schengen zone which are already doing so to continue to carry out controls on their borders, over a period which, the Commission hopes, will not extend beyond 2016. At the same time, the Commission has warned the countries in question of the costs of a suspension of the Schengen zone of this kind.
In the least pessimistic scenario, the member states would extend these controls only for a period of six months from mid-May (article 26 of the Schengen Borders Code allows them to be extended for a maximum of two years, in other words until May 2018), therefore until December 2016. In the meantime, the member states would have set in place all the measures necessary to ensure that the Schengen zone can once again function optimally.
These overall measures aiming to bring back the Schengen Zone, which have been summed up in the Commission's roadmap, are based essentially on the effectiveness of the controls on the external borders of the Schengen area. These measures include the deployment of the new European coastguard and border guard corps from August 2016, following a political agreement of the Council and the European Parliament over the summer. Other measures are based on the efforts of Greece (which is to submit an action plan to the Commission by mid-March) and on cooperation with Turkey. Additionally, decisions on the relocation of asylum seekers within the EU (160,000 people over two years) must be applied, as they are “obligatory” for all member states, the Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, pointed out. So far, 660 people have been relocated from Greece and Italy to other member states, but the Commission states that it is confident that new concrete commitments will arrive next week in the wake of the European summit. With the possible exception of the countries of the East of the EU, “whose positions have not changed”, a European source commented on Friday.
“There are a lot of developments on the ground and here in Brussels. More than 10,000 people are stuck on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and hundreds of others are continuing to arrive. The time has come to take very concrete and very swift actions”, said the Commissioner, who stressed the need to respect a common objective: returning to a Schengen zone “where the freedom of movement is not just empty words”. A number of stages will be required, the Commissioner added: remedying the serious shortcomings observed in Greece in the management of the external borders and, for the member states, “starting to pool their resources”, so that the future European border guard and coastguard agency can be up and running as soon as possible.
Although the Commission has reacted to the risk of humanitarian disaster in Greece (see EUROPE 11503), it continues to take the view that there are still shortcomings in the way the Greek authorities are dealing with the migration system on the ground. According to the Commission, for instance, there should be “100% identification and registration for all arrivals, including systematic safety controlled by consulting databases”. Greece, which received a further envelope of €3.5 million on Friday for its 'hotspot' centres for the hosting and registration of migrants, is expected to present an action plan to implement the recommendations made to it following the Schengen assessment, together with an assessment of its needs, in order to allow other member states, EU agencies and the Commission to provide it with prompt support, the Commission added. And, if necessary,the agency Frontex “should immediately prepare for the deployment of new European border guard teams and to launch, by no later than 22 March, new calls for contributions to this end”, the Commission writes. The member states would have ten days following this call to provide the resources requested.
In parallel to the efforts called for from Greece, the EU/Turkey action plan on migration will continue to roll out (see other article) and the “voluntary humanitarian admission programme in association with Turkey will also continue”. The Commission also recommends a “more effective implementation of the emergency relocation programmes and the increase of the number of returns to Turkey and the countries of origin”. As regards relocation, it finds that there is an increasingly urgent need to apply the decisions made, due to flows which are not slowing down and the number of migrants stranded in Greece.
A strict application of the 'Dublin' asylum rules
Paradoxically, the Commission also recommends not allowing migrants through if they would be unable to claim international protection. These so-called 'economic' migrants would therefore have to stay in the country in which they arrived (mostly Greece, although the Commission dismissed the idea that the country would end up as the holding camp for migrants from the whole of Europe) and then immediately sent back from there to Turkey. Therefore, at the risk of the system making the Greek chaos even worse, the so-called Dublin regulation on asylum would remain the rule until such time as it is revised, the Commission writes. Future suggestions for revision are to be presented on 16 March. It could, however, be that the new rules will revert to the principle that the country of first entry is responsible, Avramopoulos indicated.
“The member states must grant access to the asylum procedures to anybody who has made a request to this effect on their borders. The decision as to which member state is responsible for processing an application should then be taken in full respect of Union law, and in particular of the Dublin system in force. In other words, the possibility of sending asylum seekers back to the country of first entry must really exist”, writes the Commission, which is thereby opening the door for asylum seekers to be transferred from the other member states back to Greece. “It is in this context that the Commission intends to present, ahead of the June European Council, its assessment of the possibility of resuming the transfers back to Greece provided for by the Dublin Regulation”, the Commission states.
At the same time, the member states should deny entry onto their soil to third-country nationals who do not fulfil the entry criteria laid down in the Schengen Borders Code and who have not claimed asylum, even if they would have been eligible to do so, the Commission recommends. These refusals would have to be applied on the external border of the Schengen zone and the internal borders of the member states which have temporarily brought back controls. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)