At a Council of Home Affairs Ministers in Luxembourg on Friday 9 June, a number of member states called for the Dublin Regulation, which organises the responsibilities of member states in treating asylum applications, to be shelved temporarily, along with the work on the principles of responsibility and solidarity.
This request was made by Germany as a response to the ongoing stalemate situation on this dossier and the need to strike a balance between solidarity and responsibility. Belgium publicly supported this proposal and, according to the European Home Affairs Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, speaking after the session, the other delegations agreed to this approach.
The ‘Dublin’ dossier has been treading water since the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU, in the second half of 2016, and still attracts strong misgivings from the eastern countries of the EU, which object to the compulsory nature of the relocation mechanisms for asylum seekers. In the opposite corner, Italy, Greece and countries such as France do not wish to give in over this compulsory aspect.
This approach, proposed on Friday morning by the German minister, Thomas de Maizière, aims to move forward the other dossiers, particularly the six other texts of the ‘Asylum’ package, some of which, such as the reform of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), could be adopted before the end of the Presidency. Berlin pleaded pragmatism and the need to push on with matters on which there is consensus.
Italy and Greece, however, entered reservations regarding this ‘piecemeal’ approach, calling for the package logic to be respected. In particular, Italy called for the aim of working on the principles of solidarity and responsibility to be maintained, fearing, like Greece, that the underlying objective of the Dublin revision will be watered down over time.
Commissioner Avramopoulos said, however, that he was confident that Estonia would reach agreement on all aspects of the package and seemed to reject the idea of sacrificing the Dublin revision on the altar of the other texts of the ‘Asylum’ package.
The Italian representative, Domenico Manzione, stressed that the fears are certainly real. “The tendency of some” to follow a “partial approach could jeopardise the overall balance” (our translation). There can be no “cherry-picking of solidarity measures”, he added, stressing that “as far as we are concerned, there is no question of removing these principles of solidarity and responsibility from the Dublin regulation”.
The Estonian Presidency, which was chairing the meeting in the absence of the Maltese government, pledged to make the ‘Asylum’ package a priority. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)