The new European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will work on asylum to restore "trust" between Member States and encourage their cooperation in this field. She will also promote inclusive societies for legal migrants and asylum seekers by trying to combat "prejudices".
This was announced to members of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 9 December, when she presented her priorities.
Among these, the new Pact on Asylum and Migration will be a flagship project. To this end, on 5 December, the Commissioner launched a tour of European capitals with the Vice-President responsible for promoting the European way of life, Margaritis Schinas, which will end before the "end of January", she hopes.
She explained the difficulty of finding a compromise on migration issues due to this mistrust and called for "more pragmatic" cooperation between Member States, in particular to manage the phenomenon of secondary movements of asylum seekers.
Welcoming a new "momentum" with the multiplication of discussion papers on asylum reform, the Commissioner underlined that at present things were unbalanced, with 5 Member States receiving "90%" of asylum applications and 5 others which are mainly arrival countries.
For 2019, the number of irregular crossings of the EU's external borders is expected to be between 100,000 and 120,000, "but 700 000 new asylum applications are expected".
In any case, she assured MEPs that "no one wants a solution that amounts to starting from scratch", but, on the idea of mandatory solidarity, she reiterated that no proposal could forge consensus between Member States. It will therefore be necessary to address all forms of solidarity, she said.
Other priorities will be to strengthen the fight against organised crime or sexual violence against children. A new security strategy will be prepared. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)