The die is cast. The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was endorsed on Monday 10 December in Marrakech by some 150 countries out of 195, including most, if not all of the EU Member States, an agreement that has been the subject of numerous tensions in recent weeks.
Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, is all too aware of this having visited Marrakech at the cost of a political crisis that saw the Flemish Nationalist Party (NVA) leave the coalition government on Sunday, while the People’s Party tabled a motion of no-confidence against the government on Monday.
Germany, Denmark, Spain, Greece and Portugal were represented in Marrakech by their heads of government. France was represented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, since President Macron was held up in consultations aimed at resolving the 'Yellow Vest' crisis.
The Compact was adopted after oral proclamation.
This non-binding framework for international cooperation “is not a treaty” and does not impose any obligations on States, said UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
The next step will be the ratification vote on 19 December at the United Nations General Assembly.
Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Italy have already announced that they will not sign this Compact.
The Commission has no desire to overreact. When asked on Monday in Brussels whether Austria had perhaps opened Pandora's Box complete with uncontrollable consequences for Europe, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, the Austrian Johannes Hahn, insisted on minimising responsibility.
“Austria has launched a sort of discussion process and this does happens on occasion”, he said, outside the European Foreign Ministers' Meeting. As to whether he is concerned about the divisions between Europeans, he replied, “sometimes Member States do not find a common position. We are not surprised that there has been little progress in terms of migration. But I hope that all this will result in us sitting around the table and discussing matters to clarify them, especially if the legal status of refugees and migrants is still unclear”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)