Brussels, 03/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 May, the European Commission is expected to propose a financial sanctions mechanism against countries that refuse to take in refugees and asylum seekers. On Tuesday 3 May, European sources confirmed that the Commission would put forward this proposal as part of its legislative initiative to reform the Dublin regulation determining the responsibility of member states on processing requests for asylum.
On Tuesday 3 May, The Financial Times reported that this financial sanctions mechanism had been postponed. It also mentioned the figure of a €250,000 fine for each refugee but according to one European source, no figure had as yet been confirmed but that the "fine will be prohibitive"
The Commission had already looked at a possible sanctions mechanism last December (see EUROPE 11385), when it presented its proposal on the relocation of 120,000 people needing international protection but t it also chose to examine a "temporary solidarity clause" or "payment" system to the European budget of 0.002% of GDP for a country that is unable to relocate migrants. This system, however, appears almost impossible to implement because the member state in question was obliged to justify its decision by citing an event that had the implications of a natural disaster and subsequently warranted a derogation to the system. One European source also pointed out that on Wednesday 4 May, the Commission would be seeking, by way of this relatively high sanctions system, to trigger a "symbolic" effect.
On the question of the principle of the reform itself, the Commission is expected to propose a Dublin system, which would continue to be based on the key concept of the regulation, namely, that the member state responsible for the asylum request is the one where the asylum seeker was registered for the first time when arriving in the EU. The Commission, however, will be presenting a corrective mechanism based on relocation, in other words, resettlement to other member states of a proportion of asylum seekers in a given country and which has experienced exceptionally high numbers of arrivals and is unable to take care of all of these people.
According to another European source, this relocation mechanism could be activated as soon as a 150% rise in asylum requests is noted, compared to the normal average in the said country. As part of this proposal, which will require co-decision, Ireland and the United Kingdom (which take part in the current Dublin regulation) will keep their opt-in rights and Denmark will maintain its complete opt out.
Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramoupoulos will be presenting the Dublin system reform, whose main areas of its rethink were unveiled on 6 April. During their presentation, the two Commissioners may point out to member states their responsibilities, despite the fact that Slovakia and Hungary have already launched appeals against the decisions to relocate refugees and asylum seekers adopted in September. The Commission may also suggest that it is prepared to take action by way of launching infringement procedures, indicated one source, but member states will, nonetheless, have two years for implementing these relocation decisions. It should be pointed out that only 1441 out of the 106,000 asylum seekers who were due to be relocated have been relocated so far.
Turkey and Schengen controls On Wednesday 4 May, the Commission is also expected to present its proposal for visa free travel for Turkish nationals when travelling in the Schengen area (see EUROPE 11544). So far, Turkey has only met 10 of the 72 criteria and has to fulfil the rest of them by the end of June. On Monday 2 May, the Turkish authorities adopted new measures for meeting the criteria and have, more importantly, introduced automatic reciprocity for 11 EU member state countries whose nationals required a visa for entering Turkey, such as Poland and Cyprus. The Commission will also be putting forward a similar regime for Kosovo, according to several different media sources.
The Commission will present its draft recommendation to the Council for extending internal border controls, such as those practised by a number of member states (such as Germany, Denmark, France, Austria and Sweden). The Commission is expected to propose the activation of Article 29 of the Schengen Border Code (the former Article 26, before the Schengen Border Code Reform amended a number of paragraphs on 9 March last). Ministers for the Interior had endorsed targeted reform of the Schengen Border Code that allow for systematic controls of European nationals at external borders.
According to one source, the Commission will propose a six-month extension (states can in theory renew this period up to a maximum of two years) on the condition that there is a gradual lifting of these internal border controls. The Commission will use this occasion to assess the progress made by Greece for rectifying the shortcomings observed at its borders. This same source also indicated that the Council would also be invited to adopt this recommendation by 12 May. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)