The ambassadors of the 28 member states tried, over breakfast on Friday 17 February, to inch towards a compromise on solidarity on asylum and on reform of the Dublin regulation which determines which member state is responsible for handling asylum requests. They gave general support to the approach proposed by the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU, a source has revealed.
The Maltese Presidency based the discussion on the outcome of the informal meeting on 26 January (see EUROPE 11712), with the approach agreed seeking to deliver a phased response, according to defined criteria, to migration crises. Emergency relocation of asylum seekers among the member states would not come at the first stage of the crisis, the home affairs ministers are believed to have agreed.
In a press release, the Maltese Presidency welcomed the support expressed by many states for the ideas most recently advanced in the debate and also noted the concerns that continue to be voiced in this extremely sensitive and highly political issue.
On 26 January, ministers agreed on a range of points, including a three-phase response system in the event of migration crises. Building on the proposals made by the previous Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU – solidarity that is phased and tailored to the scale of the migration crisis facing the EU (see EUROPE 11686) – home affairs ministers confirmed that emergency relocation of asylum seekers and sharing them among the member states would not happen in the first stage of the crisis.
In cases of moderate migration flows, the Dublin regulation, as it is understood, including with its flexibility (for example, suspension of the transfer of asylum seekers back to the first countries of entry in order to ease the situation in these countries) would continue to apply.
In the second phase, a different system should be implemented to help the countries of first entry, such as Greece and Italy, and this is where the emergency relocation mechanism, with asylum seekers being shared among the member states, could come into play.
Lastly, in a crucial phase and in the event of mass influx of asylum seekers and refugees, the response would bring in other measures. Last December, European leaders called on their home affairs ministers to reach a compromise on this reform before summer 2017. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)