The EU member states are preparing to officially state their failure regarding reform of the Dublin Regulation which has occupied successive presidencies of the Council of the EU since summer 2016. Draft conclusions from the European Council on 25 June no longer even mention a new date for finding an agreement.
While European leaders had discussed the matter last December and sought to reach consensus by the end of June, the draft (seen by EUROPE) simply underlines that it is necessary to “do more work” on the regulation, increasingly reducing the possibility of validating the dossier under the mandate of the current European Parliament. While thanking Bulgaria for its efforts which have allowed some progress, the provisional text underlines the fact that it is still necessary to work on striking a balance between accountability and solidarity. The “Austrian presidency is invited to continue with this work”.
The text does not even mention the five texts of the “asylum” package already completed which, on 24 June, 16 member states more or less agreed to finalise by the end of July (see EUROPE 12047). It simply speaks of work being finalised. However, on the secondary movements of asylum seekers, the provisional conclusions take up a Commission draft prepared for the mini-summit of 24 June, to the great disappointment of Rome and Athens.
At the request of Germany especially, one paragraph thus focuses on the fact that these secondary movements could pull the plug on “the integrity of the European asylum system and Schengen acquis”. The member states should, in that respect, take “all administrative and internal legislative measures to counter such movements and cooperate more closely to that end”.
On the external chapter, the draft text takes up the idea developed not only by the Commission but also by the European Council of migrant disembarkation platforms, with the support of the UNHCR and the IOM, which are ready to invest in these programmes. Such regional platforms would concern, the text points out, safe “relevant” third countries, but it does not mention EU countries in these regional programmes. On Sunday 24 June, the concept had been backed by the 16 countries present but also evoked for the southern countries of the EU.
Austria persists in its concept of centres outside the EU.
According to The Financial Times, Austria’s Minister of the Interior Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), has drafted a document setting out the course already suggested by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in which he proposes that the Syrians, Afghans or nationals from African countries make requests for asylum outside the EU. This plan does not correspond to the existing European law which does not allow asylum requests to be made outside the EU.
In the past, several discussions have nonetheless shown that the EU could accept such provisions, for example via procedures in embassies or consulates of member states in third countries, under certain circumstances. Several countries, such as France, have already spoken of “centres” in the African countries where migrants could be identified and their requests for asylum in the EU examined.
The Commission did not, moreover, reject this idea on Tuesday 26 June, but simply underlined that the current legislation does not allow it. What the Commission does reject with force is this other Austrian concept of persons who arrive on Schengen territory but who are sent back (“refoulés”) to third countries where they would be authorised to make a request for asylum. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)