The European Parliament is ready to move forward on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and expects the EU Council to do the same.
The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties organised on Thursday 27 May a major hearing on the various legislative texts of the Pact proposed by the Commission in September and invited a series of politicians to identify with them the problems raised by this reform.
Sponsored by Swedish rapporteur Tomas Tobé (EPP), who is responsible for the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) and who recalled that the migration issue would not become “easier to deal with over time”, the hearing focused on the solidarity dimension.
The Greek Minister responsible for Asylum and Migration, Notis Mitarachi, made his country’s needs very clear in this regard. Considering that relocation of asylum seekers remains the most effective measure, he considered that return sponsorships could be a good idea, but doubts linger.
“The 8-month timeline” to carry out these returns seems unlikely and “this will mean that these people will remain in the country of first entry with others who may have asylum and those to be returned”.
The minister also called for a “transparent methodology” to determine the thresholds at which a country is considered to be affected by migratory pressure or a migratory crisis. “I want the Commission to accept it when Greece tells it that it is under pressure”, he said. The threshold for triggering solidarity measures for pressure situations should also be the same as for rescue at sea, which in the Pact is treated separately with mandatory measures.
The minister considered that the European response should address three issues: the external dimension and relations with third countries; the protection of external borders; and, internally, a fair redistribution of responsibilities and solidarity.
Indeed, at present, frontline countries have too many “different burdens”, between border protection, processing asylum applications, setting up centres, and carrying out returns. The future regulation on migrant screening may also set new requirements.
For his part, the German State Secretary for Home Affairs, Stephan Mayer, spoke of Berlin’s concern to have procedures at the external borders that allow for the rapid identification of who can have protection in the EU, notably through the screening regulation.
On solidarity, it is “very important for us to have a compulsory solidarity mechanism, including compulsory relocation”, but “all Member States must be open to a compromise at the end”.
“We have empathy for the frontline countries, but this is not contradictory to the objective of screening” migrants, he also said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)