On Sunday 6 and Monday 7 November, German politicians unveiled options for reform of the country’s immigration and asylum management system, according to reports in several media. In an article in Welt am Sonntag, Christian Democrat interior minister Thomas de Maizière recommended intercepting migrants at sea and sending them back to North Africa so that they can lodge a request for asylum in the EU from there, a spokesperson for de Maizière stated.
The SPD party is expected to unveil ideas on Monday 7 November about how to regulate immigration, suggesting a points system similar to the Canadian model, Reuters states, with the aim of passing a law on qualified migrants from outside the EU before the September 2017 elections. This would not change asylum rules, but would evaluate qualifications, language skills and candidates’ ability to integrate into German society, with the aim of authorising 25,000 people to enter Germany in the first year. The spokesperson explained that the German minister’s ideas have not been discussed at EU level.
Work at the EU Council has begun on various aspects of the reform of the EU’s asylum system, unveiled in May and September. The Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU hopes progress can be made in December on: - the Eurodac regulation (the database of asylum-seekers’ fingerprints) to extend its access to the police authorities’ database; - and greater powers for EASO. The Slovak Presidency is due to publish proposals on the new Dublin Regulation (on member states’ responsibility for handing asylum requests) and the controversial idea of ‘flexible solidarity,’ which is expected slow down the decision. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)