In Strasbourg on Wednesday 5 October, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs that migration decisions had to be applied and the Hungarians had expressed this. He added during a debate on the upcoming European summit of 20 and 21 October that he did not go along with expression of "flexible solidarity".
Juncker seemed to want to stamp out criticism and interpretations of his state of the Union speech on 14 September, in which he said that solidarity on migration had to come from the heart and could not be imposed. Commenting on the Hungarian referendum, ruled unlawful due to low turnout, the Commission president said it meant that applying the decisions taken, namely relocating asylum-seekers, did not involve insurmountable difficulties.
Juncker has not, however, closed the door to eastern European countries opposing quotas of migrants. He said that in the future, an "intersection" would need to be found to bring member states closer on this question. Rejecting the term "flexible solidarity", Juncker wants an agreement in which the notion of solidarity predominates.
On 20 and 21 October, the European summit will remain within the bounds set by the special Bratislava summit on migration, said a Slovak Presidency representative, Ivan Korcok – in the sense of stopping uncontrollable flows of migrants, fully controlling external borders and the need for broad consensus on long-term migration policies. In Bratislava on 16 September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recognised that the qualified majority decision taken in 2015 to share out refugees might have caused problems.
The EU28 will already be able to welcome the arrival of the EU border control and coastguard services in order to strengthen external borders. These services are due to be inaugurated in Bulgaria on 6 October by European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos and the agency’s future head, current managing director of Frontex Fabrice Leggeri (a French national).
Juncker and the Slovak Presidency welcomed this new step on 5 October and the fact the new agency will be up and running in the first place along the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. The president of the Commission said the EU-Turkey agreement (also due to be assessed during the European summit) was working and there had been a reduction in the numbers of refugees arriving in Greece. On Wednesday 5 October, Greece sent Turkey 55 asylum-seekers, mostly from Pakistan and Algeria, under the EU-Turkey agreement, according to reports by a French press agency. The group included the first 37 asylum-seekers whose applications were rejected by the Greek asylum authorities in second instance. The group does not include any Syrian asylum-seekers. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)