While the European Commission has not decided when it will present its Pact on Asylum and Migration to recast the 2016 asylum legislative package, on 9 April, Germany, Spain, France and Italy asked the two competent European Commissioners, Ylva Johansson and Margaritis Schinas, to include in the Pact a binding mechanism for the distribution of asylum seekers in the event of sudden migratory pressure in a member country.
This letter written by the Interior Ministers of these countries, revealed by Politico and seen by EUROPE, insists on the creation of a "binding mechanism for fair distribution according to specific criteria" to relieve the "handful of Member States" that "bear an excessive burden" of migrants.
This fair sharing should take place when a Member State is "subject to disproportionate pressure", the signatory countries say.
In order to spare the countries - the Visegrad Group, Austria - which are opposed to the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers, it will be possible to provide assistance in forms other than compulsory reception, the Member States admit. But this "will remain an exception" and will be based on real justifications.
In their letter, the four countries also request - without specifying their views - the establishment of a "Search and Rescue Solidarity Mechanism", an area in which the Commission has no competence and which has always been dealt with in the framework of Operation Sophia/Irini (see EUROPE 12458/19).
Another paragraph deals with the application of compulsory prior checks (registration, security and medical checks, identification) upon the arrival of asylum seekers on EU soil. Asylum seekers with dubious profiles will not be able to stay in the EU. An updated and extended catalogue of clauses for declaring the inadmission of applications should be established.
Finally, the four ministers also discussed secondary movements and reiterated the idea of allowing asylum seekers access to basic services only in the country where their application is processed.
On Friday, the Commission confirmed that it had received the letter that will feed into its reflection. For the time being, the European institution does not plan to present its pact in April, one source said.
This is not the first time that some countries, including Germany and France, but also Italy, have produced contributions for the forthcoming reform. But we have to go back to June 2018 to find the last draft compromise discussed by the ministers: the Bulgarian compromise, which already included this compulsory distribution mechanism from a certain threshold of arrivals.
Spain had so far never joined the various contributions, for example the Malta Agreement of September 2019, which dealt with temporary disembarkation regimes for migrants.
Isolated minors. On Friday, Berlin announced that 50 unaccompanied minors from Greek camps would arrive on German soil on 18 April as part of the voluntary relocation programme launched in early March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)