The Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) will prepare on Wednesday 27 February for the meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers on 7 and 8 March, at which they will take note of progress on the asylum package, the results of the first trilogues on the new mandate of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (a first meeting is to be held on 27 February) and discuss cooperation on migration with third countries. At their meeting on Wednesday, Member States' representatives are also expected to adopt without discussion the recent agreements reached with the European Parliament in trilogues on identity card security and liaison officers in third countries.
On the asylum package, a progress report from the Romanian Presidency of the Council will be submitted to the Permanent Representatives and then to the Ministers. Published by the Austrian Parliament, this report confirms the blocking of the package at Council level, which has recently refused a mandate to the Romanian Presidency to organise new trilogues on the advanced texts of the asylum package such as Eurodac or the European resettlement programme (see EUROPE 12195).
Thus, on the latter issue, the Romanian Presidency notes that it had observed strong support for its amendments to the content of the Regulation, but a majority could not support the mandate "because of the package approach", linked in particular to the Dublin Regulation. As for the Qualifications Directive, the Romanian Presidency notes in this document that it had Coreper's agreement in January 2019 to continue technical contacts with the Parliament on the content, but that it was the Parliament, this time, that refused to amend the provisional agreement of June 2018 and indicated that it "does not wish to reopen negotiations". Nor does the Parliament want to reopen the text on reception conditions.
On the Dublin Regulation, not surprisingly, the Presidency confirms the failure of the 'tour of capitals' launched by Austria at the end of 2018 to achieve a convergence of views. It also notes that its plan to make technical progress on Dublin with regular validation by Coreper has not reassured Member States, who are anxious to defend their national line.
Link to the progress report: https://bit.ly/2IDuh7w. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)