On Friday 15 December, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, had to defend the positions he has taken on the asylum seeker relocation mechanisms, which he described earlier in the week as inefficient.
The President of the Council subsequently drew fire from the Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who described his intention to open another debate on these migrant “quotas” as “unacceptable and anti-European”.
Donald Tusk said that the member states' discussion on this subject on Thursday evening had not really helped to shift any positions but had at least the merit of “taking the temperature" on the subject of relocation and pointing out that “consensus" is being sought on this issue. Nonetheless, as Donald Tusk pointed out, this consensus will be “very hard" to reach but that they “would do their best".
The former Polish Prime Minister acknowledged that his note had created a strong emotional response but felt reassured by the leaders' discussion, insofar as these relocation systems had not demonstrated their effectiveness in reducing illegal immigration. The President of the European Council, however, said that “the dispute is not over" and he hoped that this debate had helped develop some clear ideas about these relocation systems, which have only benefited 32,000 people over a two-year period.
Declaring that he was totally pro-European, Donald Tusk also said that it was his responsibility to open the debate at the European Council, with statistics and factual observations. He also refuted the fact that he was partial and too close to the position of certain countries, such as his country of origin. Donald Tusk, on the contrary, wanted Warsaw to show more solidarity in in asylum practices and would be “disappointed" if this were not the case.
The debate, however, proved annoying to Jean-Claude Juncker. The President of the Commission said that he did not understand why these relocation mechanisms that had only benefited a small number of asylum seekers were creating “so much emotion". Juncker said that the EU is completely capable of absorbing this number of people and added, "on this point, I would like us to calm down a bit and not get so excited".
On Thursday evening, European leaders discussed the subject of migration in general and particularly the financial mechanism that Donald Tusk would like to create as part of the multiannual financial framework. On the question of relocation systems and reform of the Dublin regulation, they were able to discuss and listen to the different positions again. Although it was agreed that consensus on this question remains the objective, several delegations did not rule out the possibility of taking the matter to a qualified majority vote in the event of deadlock, as suggested by Germany and Italy. Jean-Claude Juncker, however, does not like this method of qualified majority voting, as he pointed out on Friday, "I am not a fan of qualified majority voting but it is in the treaty and it can be used”.
Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian Prime Minister commented on Friday, “We are far from an agreement or even the beginning of an agreement”. Although he welcomed the financial offer from Visegrad countries for an Italian action, particularly in Libya (see EUROPE 11925), these countries, “continue to reject the decisions that have already been taken" (compulsory relocation). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with editorial support)