Ministers and representatives of the Interior Ministers of the EU Member States discussed once again, on Thursday 7 February in Bucharest, the temporary disembarkment arrangements for migrants rescued at sea, but the positions remained unchanged.
European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, at the end of this informal meeting, refused to give a figure of countries that could be voluntary to join this temporary mechanism, the European official considering that "a maximum number of member countries" is needed for it to function. At this stage, no more than nine countries have shown a willingness to participate in this type of solution, as shown by the latest cases of NGO boats blocked in European ports. These are: France, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Ireland, the Netherlands, Malta, Italy and Luxembourg.
Ministers held an exchange of views in the afternoon on the basis of the recommendations made to them by the Commission in December. The latter expected Member States to do their utmost to reform the asylum system by the end of the legislature or, failing that, to agree on a temporary landing system for migrants and to validate at least the texts of the asylum package (seven initiatives in total) considered mature.
On arriving at this informal meeting, Germany in particular announced that it would seek, together with France, to bring together as many Member States as possible on this mechanism which, in the spirit of the European Commission, should help to find a solution to the Dublin Regulation on asylum, the revision of which has been blocked since 2016. In Dimitris Avramopoulos' view, this temporary measure, which is supposed to respond to the recent situations experienced by NGO boats such as Sea-Watch 3, must indeed be "a bridge" towards the revision of the Dublin Regulation and can under no circumstances "replace" it.
But in Bucharest, the ministers have not yet been able to identify the nature of this mechanism or the number of participants. Many countries took the floor to discuss the feasibility, the practical aspects, but also the public of migrants targeted for distribution among countries once they landed, or the selection of migration routes to be favoured in this mechanism. Some countries, and not necessarily those that have opposed the relocation of asylum seekers to the EU in recent months, have also raised questions about the air-draining effect of such a mechanism, an effect that this mechanism should strive to keep to a minimum. "It's more of a general questioning point", said a source who followed the discussions. But a large number of delegations insisted that this mechanism should really remain temporary and should not prejudge the fate of future work on the Dublin Regulation.
Several countries have still raised the question of adopting the texts of the Asylum package, which are sufficiently advanced, but “there is still no agreement on this point”, continued this source, as the logic of the package is still the path being followed, which prevents any further validation without an agreement on Dublin.
The Romanian Presidency has decided in any case to continue discussions on the subject and will have to indicate later how it intends to proceed. The European Commissioner called on the Member States to act all the more quickly in view of the European elections, during which time it will be "important to show that we can meet common challenges". (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)