As the European Commission is about to finalise its Pact on Asylum and Migration—the publication date of which it does not want to specify at the moment—the EPP Group in the European Parliament has, in turn, presented its priorities for this forthcoming reform. In January, the Renew Europe group published a 6-point plan (see EUROPE 12403/7).
The EPP document (https://bit.ly/3f7aMjG ) is based on several axes: the fight against trafficking of human beings, the protection of external borders, the improvement of return and readmission rates, as well the adequate reform of the asylum system, resettlement, causes of departure and legal migration.
Regarding the reform of the asylum system and in particular the Dublin Regulation, which lays down the responsibilities of Member States, the group says that in future, a majority of asylum applications should be “made outside of the European Union or at the external borders of the Union or in the transit zone of a Member State before any decision is taken regarding the entry of the applicant”.
Member States should be able to provide a rapid admissibility check at external borders in order to decide whether to continue processing the application.
With regard to solidarity, the new system should ensure “that Member States accept their fair share of responsibility, respecting the principle of solidarity and subsidiarity”.
The EPP believes that the future asylum system should ensure that any incoming asylum seekers are “fairly distributed among Member States in order to ease the pressure on Member States of first entry”. “Member States that are reluctant to participate in this framework” will have to make solidarity contributions in other “specific” and “significant” forms, although the EPP did not go into any detail on this point.
On the topic of legal migration, this should help to attract qualified personnel to the EU, with the group calling for the Blue Card Directive to finally be revised.
New texts in sight
The European Commission has repeatedly indicated that its Pact would be comprehensive and would address all aspects, not just the controversial revision of the Dublin Regulation. The protection of external borders and a return to a normally-functioning Schengen area would also form part of this. The European Commission has not confirmed whether it will amend or definitively withdraw the current draft text on Dublin 2016 when replacing it.
According to an internal Commission document, the Pact, which is due to be published in time for the German Presidency of the EU Council, will contain three new legislative proposals, two amended proposals and non-legislative communications. The current 'Asylum Pact' contains seven legislative texts.
Young migrants relocated to Portugal and Slovenia
On 30 April, the European Commission announced new care facilities for unaccompanied migrant minors in Member States. Following on from Luxembourg and Germany, unaccompanied minors were taken into care by Portugal and Slovenia. Some ten Member States have committed themselves to receiving 1,600 young migrants trapped in Greece. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)