The members of the EU Council’s Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (SCIFA) group could not agree on 27 September on whether to take forward the so-called ‘screening’ regulation for migrants at the external borders independently of the rest of the ‘Asylum and Migration Pact’, as requested by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council.
The discussions revealed that the positions of the Member States are still very different, several sources said. The so-called frontline countries of the EU maintain their opposition, both to the principle of decoupling (which would deprive them of a means of exerting pressure in order to obtain the solidarity guarantees set out in other texts) and to the practical means. They fear a problem of resources to implement this regulation which could result in the creation of new closed facilities to detain migrants.
“Positions are fixed”, explains one of these sources. However, other Member States consider that this tool would be “an important element for the security of the EU”. “We think we need to move quickly on this text”, said another source.
The Slovenian Presidency is trying to convince Member States that this tool should be seen as a means of strengthening the protection of external borders, without prejudging the fate of asylum cases filed by migrants, which are covered by other texts, including that on asylum procedures. But the so-called frontline countries do not want to change their position and continue to believe that 5-day security checks would be a new burden that would be difficult to manage. They are also afraid that these controls will last more than 5 days.
The Slovenian Presidency is expected to try again to make progress on this ‘decoupling’ suggestion on 8 October in Luxembourg, at the meeting of EU Interior Ministers, but it may have more luck with the Eurodac text, which is a little more technical for Member States.
Reports to the European Parliament on 26 October
The reports on the management of asylum and migration (which reviews the Dublin criteria), by Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé (EPP), and on the regulation on asylum procedures, by French MEP Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe), are due to be presented to the Committee on Civil Liberties on 26 October, their offices said.
When contacted, the office of Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany), who is managing the ‘screening’ regulation, had not yet specified its timetable at the time of going to press. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)