The ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union gave a mandate to the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council on Wednesday 16 June to relaunch the negotiations with the European Parliament on the new European Asylum Agency.
The European Asylum Agency Regulation strengthens the existing mandate of EASO (European Asylum Support Office) and facilitates the deployment of experts to Member States that have requested operational support. The new mandate also increases the Agency’s support for cooperation between Member States and third countries.
Five Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain) had reservations about the text, which was ready for adoption because of other elements of the Pact on Migration and Asylum that impose new obligations on them at the external borders. They had therefore decided to make a gesture on this regulation in the hope of obtaining favourable progress on the other elements of the Pact (see EUROPE 12736/10). The EASO reform was first presented in 2016 and partially agreed with the European Parliament in 2017, before being amended in 2018. The new mandate reverts to the 2016 text, but excludes three points, notably on the monitoring mechanism, which the five countries do not want to implement before making progress on the rest of the Pact.
The five countries reiterated on 16 June that they consider the 2016 legislative proposals on the reform of the Common European Asylum System and the 2020 legislative proposals on the Pact on Immigration and Asylum “to be a legislative package with closely related elements. The adoption of the Regulation on the European Asylum Agency is an important and necessary step which does not affect this package approach”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)