The Interior Ministers of the EU Member States approved, on Friday 7 June in Luxembourg, a tightening of the ‘Returns’ Directive, which will in particular allow longer detention periods for persons subject to a return decision who are a potential flight risk (see EUROPE 12095/13). The Ministers approved a partial general approach, as requested by the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council, because not all elements related to border procedures have yet been settled (this procedure is part of a regulation related to the whole ‘Asylum’ Package).
For Romanian Home Affairs Minister Carmen Dan, “we will be able to have more effective return rules”, while effective return rates were only 36.6% in 2017. She went on to say that “we have improved the text”, in particular by introducing a list of criteria to determine the flight risk or the possibility, if all fundamental rights conditions are met, of returning an illegal national “to any non-Member State” that is considered safe.
The European Parliament will now have to begin its work; it had worked previously on this new proposal with the rapporteur, Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) - who is no longer an MEP - but had also expressed its dissatisfaction with a proposal that made many connections to this much talked about ‘Asylum’ Package, which Parliament clearly understood would not succeed.
The Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) has therefore never voted in favour of the Dutch report, resetting all the counters to zero. But the LIBE Committee requested a study on the Commission’s targeted revision, which indicated that it was not necessarily likely to improve return rates and that it could be costly for Member States as well as leading to violations of the fundamental rights of the persons concerned.
Three funds approved
At their meetings, the Ministers also approved the modalities for the three European funds dedicated to asylum and migration, internal security and integrated border management. They have specified and expanded in some cases the actions that can be financed, but the figures will be provided by the Heads of State and Government during the discussions on the Multiannual Financial Framework. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)