The European Parliament organised a major conference on the future of European asylum and migration policies on Thursday 19 November, involving European officials, parliamentarians and local actors, including the mayors of Mytilene (Lesbos) and Lampedusa, who spoke of their feelings of loneliness and even powerlessness in the face of migrant arrivals.
As the Council of the EU and Parliament started their work on the new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ presented on 23 September, the aim of the meeting was to stress the normal and manageable nature of migration and also to insist on new legal channels while better identifying the people who arrive.
The Pact proposes initiatives in this direction – ranging from a new, compulsory solidarity response in times of crisis, to a reinforced return policy – but also new procedures for identifying migrants for frontline countries.
Parliament President David Sassoli opened this landmark event. The Italian believes that it is urgent to make a success of this reform and to show the world that the EU is a “global player, capable of presenting a united front to manage one of the greatest structural challenges of migration and asylum”.
The President insisted on the duty to welcome people in need of protection and to fight networks of smugglers, but he also pleaded for new legal channels of migration in order to respond to the problems “of our ageing societies”.
He also stressed the need not to criminalise the work of NGOs that carry out rescues at sea. In any case, the President pf Parliament believes that this Pact is a first “good basis for work”.
He was joined in his recommendations by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who stressed the contribution of migrants to European society, citing the example of the BioNTech company, founded by Turkish immigrants in Germany, and recalled that people who arrived legally should be able to feel fully integrated and welcome. And the Commission will present a European plan to this end next week.
Commissioner Ylva Johansson also defended this approach to legal migration and the reception of people in need of international protection. On the other hand, she further stressed the need to repatriate those who are not eligible for protection and who represented the majority of irregular arrivals in the EU in 2019.
Trio of Presidencies
Alongside these officials, the German, Portuguese and Slovenian governments were also able to present the main lines of the work they will be carrying out on the Pact.
The President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, pleaded for the respect due to those arriving, even those who will not be able to stay in the EU. They should be treated with dignity in centres within the EU, or even “outside the EU”, he said.
Portugal will highlight how migrants enrich societies, as the country has been able to integrate different communities harmoniously throughout its history. Border protection will therefore not be the alpha and omega of the work carried out by the Portuguese Presidency over the next 6 months, the president of the assembly understood.
Slovenia, for its part, will focus on the overall balance between protection of asylum seekers, but also flow and border management. It will be necessary to work towards a “more balanced and fairer system”, said his representative.
Home Affairs Council around 14-15 December
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was also present and reiterated that the German Presidency of the European Council still has the “goal” of reaching “a political agreement on the architecture” of the Pact in December at the Home Affairs Council, originally scheduled for 4 December and which could take place on 14 and 15 December.
The Minister will do his utmost to achieve this goal, even though the EU ambassadors are currently working more on the assumption of a progress report rather than on a general political agreement. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)