Further progress is expected this week, particularly during the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) to the EU on Tuesday 19 June on a range of pending dossiers in the asylum package, particularly the resettlement regulation, which could obtain the green light from the member states.
COREPER is also expected to look at the provisional agreements reached last week during a trialogue with Parliament on the “reception conditions” and qualifications regulation for which they still need to approve the contents.
On the ‘Eurodac’ regulation, however, which was also revised in 2016 as part of the asylum package, the new trialogue on Tuesday 19 June, was presented the day before as not being conclusive. The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council was not expected to be able to conclude this work before the end of the month, explained one source, despite the fact that according to another source, an agreement is “close”.
The work also requires more time on the “procedures” regulation (see EUROPE 12041), which will not be able to be finalised under the Bulgarian Presidency. On 'Eurodac', the well-known regulation calling for the registration of migrants' data as soon as they arrive in the EU and on beginning asylum procedures, a few questions are still pending.
A note on 30 May ahead of the meeting of the Ministers for the Interior in Luxembourg explained that the work was expected to continue on the period for conserving asylum seekers' data in the system, the question of transferring the data to third countries and child support measures when their biometric data is being taken, including fingerprints.
On the regulation introducing a new framework for refugee resettlement, a provisional agreement was reached last week, according to another source but COREPER still has to make progress on this issue on 19 June.
The main lines in the agreement reached consist in including these non-binding humanitarian admissions in the re-settlement objectives because the programme is no longer exclusively reserved for refugees. Parliament highlighted the importance of not transforming this programme into a migration control instrument in the EU. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)