On Wednesday evening, MEPs took up the issue of the pushback of migrants at the EU’s external borders, especially after new revelations that implicated the Greek, Croatian and Romanian coastguards (see EUROPE 12807/4).
They invited the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, to take stock of the Commission’s action. The Commissioner reminded MEPs that she had already discussed the new revelations with EU interior ministers on 8 October, and had spoken specifically to the Greek and Croatian ministers, as well as to their Romanian counterpart. “Pushbacks cannot be legalised”, she repeatedly insisted.
While Ylva Johansson noted positive feedback from the Croatian minister, who has already told her that three police officers involved will “be prosecuted”, she seemed more disappointed with the action of the Greek minister, Notis Mitarachi. “I would also like Greece to open an investigation as soon as possible in accordance with bilateral assurances.”
The Commissioner also recalled that an agreement on the Pact would bring real progress, as the proposed regulation on migrant screening provides for an independent mechanism to monitor fundamental rights at external borders.
Such a scheme already exists in Croatia, and the Commissioner called on the country to fully implement it. It also considered that Member States could set up an independent monitoring system, without waiting for the Pact.
Some MEPs expressed “despair”, as Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) put it. “We had a debate on Tuesday about the rule of law. Does it stop at the borders?” she asked. These “pushbacks cannot be considered as a legal instrument; funding must be made conditional, and Frontex must prevent pushbacks”.
Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe, Netherlands) also asked whether “leaving people in the cold, sending them back on makeshift boats or to the centres in Libya is part of the European way of life”.
German MEP Birgit Sippel (S&D) called on the Commission to launch infringement proceedings, expressing concern about the existence of “lawless areas” on the border between Poland and Belarus, to which the media have no access and where Poland is currently refusing to let a technical mission from the Commission operate.
The S&D group has written to the Commission President on this issue. Above all, it calls for greater control over, or even suspension of, EU funds sent to countries perpetrating pushbacks. The Commissioner promised to use OLAF to investigate allegations of misuse of EU funds.
Link to the letter: https://bit.ly/3B2nwC2 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)