Increased participation in the temporary mechanism for the disembarkation of migrants and, if possible, concrete commitments to achieve a more comprehensive reform of the European asylum system in the medium term. This is what the Interior Ministers from four countries will ask on Tuesday 8 October in Luxembourg of their counterparts, namely the French, German, Italian and Maltese Ministers, who agreed on 23 September in Malta, on the outlines of this temporary mechanism, intended to relieve Malta and Italy when NGO boats arrive to assist migrants at sea.
This is also the wish of the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which was also present in Malta and still hoped, on Thursday 3 October, that “as many Member States as possible” would support this temporary mechanism, a diplomatic source stressed. Although this mechanism is very specific to an area, that of the Central Mediterranean, Helsinki also hopes that it can “serve as an experiment” for the broader reform of the European common asylum system that is still expected.
Over lunch, the ministers and representatives of the ministers of the Twenty-Eight will take stock of the migration situation and will be informed by these four countries of what has been agreed in Malta. As a reminder, this provisional agreement provides for volunteering countries to quickly take charge of migrants who have landed on their territory and relocate them domestically. When they disembark in the port of arrival agreed between these volunteering countries (the rotation system of reception ports has not been fixed in Malta), the Frontex and Europol agencies, as well as the European Asylum Support Office, will act quickly to establish an initial profile of the migrants rescued and see which ones are seeking asylum. However, the real controls and analyses of profiles and studies of asylum applications would be carried out in the volunteer country that relocates migrants.
According to Malta's agreement, any person seeking asylum, once disembarked, would be covered by this temporary mechanism, as the text does not specify which public is targeted; in any case, the text stipulates that this mechanism would have a duration of 6 months, which could be extended. While Hungary has seen the return of the notorious ‘relocation quotas’, the Malta agreement repeatedly specifies the voluntary nature of the scheme.
“Each Member State may always offer an alternative place of safety on a voluntary basis and inform the European Commission accordingly. In the event of disproportionate migratory pressure in a participating State, calculated on the basis of limited reception capacities or a high number of applications for international protection, an alternative place of safety is proposed on a voluntary basis”, thus stipulates the Malta Agreement, and the participating Member States would be required to relocate persons within a maximum period of 4 weeks.
It is difficult to say, however, whether the meeting on 8 October and the lunch – to which Schengen countries such as Switzerland, which will also be invited to participate in the mechanism, will make real progress in the field of migration and asylum policies.
According to the Finnish Presidency, the discussion will serve to identify “common problems” and try to find “common solutions”, but the Helsinki action will be limited. Finland's Presidency is indeed suspended by the decisions that the Commission will announce on asylum reform, as promised by it in its new Pact on Asylum and Migration.
In any case, at this lunch, ministers should also discuss Turkey and the assistance to be provided in this area, while Greece, according to one source, is giving more and more voices on the problems it has to manage with Turkey and the increasing arrivals of migrants, making this area once again much more sensitive than the central Mediterranean area.
For the rest, ministers will discuss internal security, hybrid threats, but also new technologies such as 5G and their implications for internal security. They will adopt conclusions on sexual abuse of minors and, finally, will conclude their day with a discussion on the interoperability of information systems and the implementation of the new European provisions.
Link to the Malta Agreement: https://bit.ly/2o91k9X (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)