No decisions are expected, just an overview and evaluation of the measures taken so far in the fight against terrorism and the management of migration flows await the European home affairs ministers, who are to meet in Brussels on Thursday 14 September for a formal meeting called by the Estonian Presidency.
This meeting comes after a summer that has been marked by further terrorist attacks, most notably in Barcelona, and, as regards migration, by a considerable drop in arrivals in Italy and new cooperation with the African countries of transit or origin.
Ministers will first of all discuss the priorities to be agreed upon in the fight against terror. They will discuss all aspects of this policy, from tackling radicalisation, working with the Internet giants, the exchange of information, particularly with the intelligence services, to the interoperability of information systems.
Countries such as France, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden, which are currently carrying out controls on their internal borders, may also raise their request for a reform of the Schengen Code, which would allow more flexible conditions to authorise controls on the internal borders on the grounds of the terrorist threat. The Commission has said that it is open to a legislative proposal to this effect and, according to a diplomatic source, this proposal may come at the end of September, but the Commission declined to confirm this.
Such a proposal would allow the states currently carrying out controls on migration grounds that are due to end in November to continue them on other legal bases, but certain sources have suggested that it may not necessarily be justified and may aim more at serving national political interests. However, the Commission has acknowledged that it could bring its code into line with new terrorist threats and Commissioners Julian King and Dimitris Avramopoulos have confirmed in recent days that the Commission was to present a proposal in the near future.
Still on the fight against terror, the ministers will also take stock on the transposition of the PNR directive, to be completed by May 2018. Although some countries have made progress, others, and not the smaller member states, as a diplomatic source put it, are a long way behind.
The final point on the morning's agenda will be the recent Court of Justice judgement on the draft PNR agreement with Canada (see EUROPE 11837). The Commission is expected to present its analysis to the ministers and recommend next steps.
Migration will be discussed immediately after the 'terrorism' session and before the EU/Canada PNR agreement. The situation in Libya will be discussed over the lunch that will close the working session. On migration, the ministers are expected to welcome the fact that flows have dropped in the central Mediterranean, which many impute to the code of conduct for NGOs drawn up by Rome in July, the role of the Libyan coast guards or the implementation of agreements between the Italian government and local communities in Libya.
Arrivals in the western Mediterranean via Spain are still on the increase, but the numbers are still relatively modest, according to the same diplomatic source.
Some of the ministers may reaffirm their intention of making progress on the reform of the Dublin system and, in particular, on the solidarity mechanism based on the relocation of asylum seekers. This system has been partly vindicated by the judgement of the Court of Justice of the EU returned on 6 September against Hungary and Slovakia (see EUROPE 11856). However, the dossier is “at total stalemate” and countries such as Italy, the same source explained, are not necessarily in a hurry to press on with this point, unlike Germany.
The reform of the Dublin regulation will not be on the agenda of this Council, but the Estonian Presidency hopes to revisit it later this year at ministerial level, in a “scenario of optimism”, another political source commented. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)