The EU Home Affairs Ministers, meeting on Monday 14 December by videoconference, discussed the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and adopted, as expected, a progress report showing persistent differences on the balance between responsibility and solidarity in asylum matters.
On behalf of the EU Council Presidency, German State Secretary for Home Affairs Stephan Mayer, who replaced Minister Horst Seehofer, nevertheless considered that the Member States had achieved a breakthrough by acknowledging that the Pact published by the European Commission on 23 September (see EUROPE 12566/1) was “a good working basis” which had not necessarily been a given. He also recalled the working conditions of the German Presidency of the EU Council, which had been unable to make real progress because the pandemic had made face-to-face meetings impossible.
For her part, Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson also assessed the climate of the discussion as “positive and constructive”. The working atmosphere is nothing like it was in 2015 and the often described toxic nature of the discussions at that time, she said. She noted, in particular, progress on legal migration and the external dimension of migration through relations with non-Member States.
In fact, the report indicates that the Pact provides a good basis for work and that elements of consensus exist on the external dimension of migration or return policies.
The strengthening of the EU’s external borders through Frontex’s new mandate and the management of migration through the establishment of the new databases are not creating a stir either.
But things are more complex for the internal aspect of solidarity and responsibility. On 23 September, the Commission proposed that all Member States should be obliged to assist countries under stress or in a situation of migration crisis by relocating asylum seekers or sponsoring their return, or even by helping to set up reception centres for migrants. In exchange, frontline countries will have to (even outside crisis situations) put in place stricter procedures for the identification of migrants with a new regulation on preliminary security checks and a new regulation on asylum procedures at borders.
These obligations are considered burdensome by the countries of the South, which are not in favour of them and are also looking for guarantees that the promised aid will arrive as planned, if necessary.
The report thus highlights the fact that the Member States have different views on the compulsory nature of these new procedures and on the feasibility of these new rules, in terms of bureaucracy, but also in terms of the reception capacities of migrants to be monitored. They also have different views on the impact of these obligations on return rates.
Further work is also needed on the solidarity aspects, for example on aid mechanisms for cases of rescue at sea, with the report taking, as a good example, the voluntary agreement in Malta, signed in September 2019 by five Member States.
For other emergencies, if all Member States agree on a package of measures ranging from relocation to returns and support for the creation of reception centres, it must be ensured that this aid will have the immediate effect of reducing migratory pressure in frontline countries.
Discrepancies in the correction mechanism
The report notes on this point that the correction mechanism, envisaged by the Commission if Member States’ aid pledges remain too low, is still under debate, as some of these countries are opposed to the correction involving compulsory relocation and want more flexibility. Here too, therefore, further work is needed to clarify the conditions under which this correction mechanism would apply.
European Parliament negotiators will have an informal meeting on 15 December to coordinate their work on the Pact.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/2WeLPdW (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)