The national ambassadors to the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) have not yet been able on Wednesday 10 June to adopt EU strategic guidelines for future Justice and Home Affairs policies due to a continuing divergence of views over the wording to be adopted on the issue of migration and 'burden sharing'.
As was the case in March (see EUROPE 12446/17), when ministers failed to adopt the text, the ambassadors struggled to find a balance in the wording between solidarity and responsibility in respect of asylum issues.
Various national interventions—albeit few in number—confirmed this blockage on Wednesday morning according to reports from one source. This blockage is still largely in relation to traditional divisions that emerged during the work on the asylum package between those countries which put more emphasis on solidarity and those which prefer to accentuate responsibility. The guidelines do not go into the details of the policies to be pursued, but instead set out the principles that will guide future work.
With regard to migration, it is essentially a matter of reiterating that the EU27 want to manage migration flows more effectively at all times in order to combat irregular immigration, secondary movements, and common policies that respond to them. The Croatian Presidency hopes to have these guidelines adopted before the end of its term of office. It is therefore possible that the topic could be back on the table as early as this Friday 12 June, at a further Coreper meeting. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)