EU interior and justice ministers will be meeting in Brussels on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 March for a meeting that will focus on Monday on migratory flows and the returns policy for illegal immigrants and on Tuesday on foreign combatants, the European Prosecutor’s Office and justice in cyberspace.
No substantial progress is expected on the sensitive issue of reform of the European asylum system and the Dublin Regulation, on which only a progress report will be published. On the question of the European Prosecutor’s Office, it is not certain that a sufficient number of ministers will be prepared to sign up at this point for enhanced cooperation to be launched since at the ministers were not unanimous at their meeting of 9 March.
On Monday, the ministers will discuss the situation in the Central Mediterranean, where migrant flows are increasing, explained a diplomatic source on Friday 24 March. The ministers will discuss progress in the roadmap adopted in Malta in early February.
In terms of returns policy, they will discuss measures unveiled on 2 March by the European Commission, which recommend that the member states make more frequent use of detention of migrants not entitled to claim asylum, so they can be sent back to their home country.
The ministers will note reform of the European asylum system which includes (along with other directives) reform of the Dublin Regulation, which determines the country responsible for processing asylum applications. This is one of the most controversial texts, because the Commission has added to it a mechanism for compulsory relocation of asylum-seekers in the event of a crisis. The discussions are in deadlock over this ‘solidarity mechanism’ despite what was suggested by an informal meeting of interior ministers in Malta at the end of January, since ministers are still a long way off agreement on this issue.
The dividing lines have not changed, explain another source, viz. the Visegrad nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) that reject the idea of compulsory acceptance of asylum-seekers in their country, and the ‘first line’ states of Italy and Greece, which refuse to accept offers from the Maltese Presidency of alternatives to compulsory acceptance. The matter is ‘somewhat blocked’ and the ‘political climate’ is not favourable for imposing qualified majority voting on the question, although this is foreseen in the Treaty. The aim is to achieve consensus and not force the hand of any country on the question of asylum.
Around lunchtime on Monday, the ministers will discuss the relocation measures for asylum-seekers taken in September 2015. Some member states think that the target of relocating 160,000 from Greece and Italy could be achieved because there are fewer than 160,000 to be relocated, but the source said that people who have arrived in Greece and Italy are not entitled to protection. On the other hand, if the opposing countries (the Visegrad states) continue to refuse to participate, the Commission may decide to issue decisions against them at that point.
On Tuesday, alongside the European Prosecutor’s Office question, the ministers will discuss the European Court of Justice ruling of December on the retention of electronic communications data and the Tele2 ruling that they find problematic. On the question of foreign combatants, the judicial aspect will be discussed based on a note from EU counter-terror coordinator Gilles de Kerchove. Some member states, France for instance, are calling for systematic registration by the judicial system of foreign combatants returning to the EU so that they can be monitored. Over lunch, the ministers will hold an initial debate on whistleblowers and boosting their protection, possibly via a ‘horizontal’ instrument. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)