Over dinner on Thursday 14 December, the European leaders will discuss the fate of the compulsory relocation systems for asylum seekers, as they were requested to do by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in his invitation letter.
The question of compulsory quotas comes within a broader discussion on migration, which will also cover the external dimension of the migration challenge and the financial instruments of the European budget that Tusk wishes to allocate to migration policies.
The fate of the relocation mechanisms, which the Commission in 2016 proposed be made permanent and compulsory for all member states as part of its reform of the 'Dublin' system, will most assuredly be the most substantive political debate, a diplomatic source said. It “could go on for some time”, another diplomatic source commented.
At the end of November, the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU tabled a proposed compromise on the reform of the European asylum system, putting an end to the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers (see EUROPE 11915).
Earlier on Thursday, the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, will meet the leaders of the Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) to discuss migration and solidarity. These countries are expected to provide Italy with substantial assistance with respect to Libya, a European source explained, and to contribute to the trust fund for Africa.
The aim of this meeting for the Visegrad countries will be to convince their partners that they can show solidarity in migration matters without having to take quotas of asylum seekers. They will attempt to demonstrate that this type of support and control measure on the external borders are the right way for the EU to manage migration flows, unlike quotas, which they feel are divisive.
On Thursday evening, they will in any case have to try to “come out of trench warfare” on this relocation dossier, a fourth diplomatic source said. There will be no conclusions from this discussion, but the aim will be to sketch out a path to agreement by June 2018, as the European leaders pledged to do in October.
On Wednesday, the European Commission referred to the controversy triggered by Tusk's note stating that the compulsory relocation systems have proven divisive and ineffective (see EUROPE 11924).
In a lesser version of the criticism made the day before by the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Commission spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, said that Tusk's note only partially reflected the overall approach set in place at European level to tackle the migration challenge. He went on to say that isolated and uncoordinated solutions would not be constructive and would constitute a step backwards.
The Commission, which denies any dispute with Tusk on the subject, furthermore said that it completely disagreed with the Council President's comments that the quotas have not been effective, as more than 30,000 people have been relocated so far (see EUROPE 11869).
Solidarity in migration matters is more than just border management measures and solidarity with Africa, Schinas added, also regretting the fact that Tusk's note had made no mention of the return to normal operations of the Schengen area of free movement, which is currently impossible due precisely to the absence of solutions on a reform of the asylum system.
The European Parliament has stressed that it will fight to enforce the decision-making rules set out in the Treaty on this subject: qualified majority. The Commission also considers that the work is the responsibility of the co-legislators, and not the European Council alone. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Marion Fontana and Aminata Niang)