On Monday 6 December, the Member States began their examination of the proposal for an EU Council decision put forward by the European Commission on 1 December on the basis of Article 78.3 in an ‘Asylum’ working group, and Poland was able to express its reservations about this text, which in its view does not seem to be sufficient to deal with the situation at its border with Belarus.
On 1 December, the Commission had proposed relaxations of the Asylum and Return Directives to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to help them manage the reception of migrants and asylum seekers (see EUROPE 12844/11), triggering the anger of NGOs and several political groups in the European Parliament.
But on Monday, Poland called the proposal “counterproductive” and said it was “surprised that it had not been consulted in advance” by the Commission. It “went in the opposite direction of what we had proposed”, was the reaction of the Polish Permanent Representation.
The country had “proposed that the response to a hybrid attack should be the possibility of suspending asylum procedures, not extending them”. “Suspension of asylum procedures encourages the perpetrator to stop acting, while prolonging asylum procedures overloads the asylum system in Member States and may not work”.
During this discussion, the other two countries concerned were reportedly less categorical, but also keen to improve the text. Cyprus also reportedly raised objections and regretted that the Commission had not proposed a similar mechanism to Cyprus, which also faces flows from Turkey that may meet the characteristics of a hybrid threat. When questioned by EUROPE, the Permanent Representation of Cyprus mentioned the general position of the government on this issue, which considers that it is also confronted with too many arrivals for its capacities and had also asked the Commission, in mid-November, to activate this same Article 78.3.
When questioned by EUROPE, the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council did not give any details on the timetable for this dossier, which will not be formally on the agenda of the EU interior ministers meeting on 9 December.
Revision of the Schengen Code
The Commission, independently of this temporary proposal, should include in the forthcoming revision of the Schengen Code a definition of these hybrid threats and propose sustainable responses to such situations. This would allow the Commission to ‘systematise’ the right to reduce border crossings when a Member State is faced with such a crisis.
It could also introduce on a more permanent basis the right for Member States to derogate from certain asylum rules, such as registration deadlines or material reception conditions, when a hybrid threat situation is observed, as it has temporarily proposed to these three countries. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)