Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) were unable to reach political agreement in principle on Wednesday 23 January on the legislative proposal governing the activities of the European Asylum Agency (formerly EASO).
As proposed by the Commission in September 2018 (see EUROPE 12094), the aim is to slightly amend an earlier legislative initiative of May 2016 and to strengthen links with the reform of the European Coast Guard and Border Guard Agency (ex-Frontex) and to clarify the assistance actions that the European Asylum Agency will be likely to carry out in the field.
The qualified majority required by the Council has not been reached, one source reported. Some Member States are still associating it with the rest of the 'asylum' legislative package (7 texts), which includes incomplete texts, such as the so-called 'Dublin' regulations or regulations on asylum procedures. This association prevents the Committee from moving forward by formally and individually validating certain texts in the overall package.
On Wednesday, the ambassadors also discussed work on the European Coast Guard and Border Guard Agency as well as progress on the directives on 'reception conditions for asylum seekers' and 'qualifications for international protection'.
On Frontex, the discussion aimed to set the lines to take for staff capacity, with the Commission having proposed to increase this quota to 10,000 members by 2027 (see EUROPE 12094), as well as the executive powers of the agency.
According to one source, this discussion made it possible to validate the lines pursued.
A note from the Romanian Presidency of the Council dated 18 January recalls the objections of many Member States to the timetable suggested by the Commission. Some countries fear that national agencies may be weakened by the increased powers of the European Asylum Agency. Others point out that the target of 10,000 officers is “a maximum" to be achieved gradually between 2021 and 2027.
According to the note, a transition period of over a year from the entry into force of the Regulation will be possible and a mid-term review is planned to assess and adapt, if necessary, the maximum capacity of 10,000 people and the composition of the permanent body.
On the executive powers of the European Agency, Member States want to ensure that it is only the host country of an Agency operation that can decide on the missions and tasks of deployed staff.
Amendments to certain texts of the asylum package
With regard to the discussions on the 'qualification' and 'reception conditions' directives, the aim was to reach agreement on the substantive changes to be made to the content of these texts, which could not be formally validated in June 2018 under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 12045) or at the European summit in December (see EUROPE 12160).
For the qualifications directive, the objective of the discussion was to address the concerns of some Member States about: - the grounds for exclusion from protection, for example on the nature of serious crimes that an applicant may have committed, and - restrictions on freedom of movement in the EU once protection has been granted (a beneficiary cannot choose his/her place of residence in the EU after having received protection in a country).
As with the regulation on the resettlement of migrants, the question is whether the Council's position can change. While informal contacts exist with the Parliament on these issues, negotiations have not formally resumed on these texts in the asylum package, which the Parliament deems final. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)