EU ministers for home affairs will meet in Brussels on Thursday 9 December for a session dominated by the recent events on the border with Belarus. However, no major breakthrough is expected on legislative dossiers, such as the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The ministers will also not have the opportunity for a first exchange of views on the revision of the Schengen Code and the definition of hybrid threats that the Commission intends to introduce (see related article), as this revision, initially scheduled for 8 December, is delayed until 14 December.
On 8 December, only a set of texts on police cooperation will be presented, including a revision of the framework of the ‘Prüm’ decisions (organising the exchange of DNA data between police services) and new tools to strengthen police cooperation and its operational aspects (for example, by means of joint police patrols to deal with the phenomenon of secondary movements). The Commission could also propose an initiative on the exchange of information between police services.
However, for the Schengen Code itself, the revision will come later. The reform also aims to address the problems of secondary movements in Member States, in particular of asylum seekers, as well as to learn from the pandemic. Recent Opinions of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU, which gave a favourable interpretation of the ability of Member States to respond to sudden crises with internal border controls, may limit the Commission’s ambitions in this area and its plans to take back some control.
In any case, on the Schengen area, the ministers will have to be satisfied with a progress report on Thursday 9 December on the revision of the Schengen evaluation mechanism, which was also presented in June and aims, for example, to introduce real surprise inspections on the ground.
They will then take stock of the interoperability of European information systems and the backlog in the EU’s entry/exit system.
At lunch, they will also discuss the Pact on Migration and Asylum and how to take it forward. The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council had thought that it would be possible to make progress on the ‘Eurodac’ regulation or even on the ‘Migrant Screening’ regulation on the basis that they could be considered only as technical tools to combat irregular immigration, but the ‘package’ logic and the links with the other Pact dossiers are strong. It also remains difficult to find a balance between the ‘solidarity’ and ‘responsibility’ components.
Slovenia, which still hopes that partial agreements will be possible before the end of December, may therefore have to hand over to the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union without a major breakthrough on the Pact.
The ministers are also expected to be asked on Thursday to adopt conclusions on Croatia’s full compliance with the Schengen acquis. These conclusions require unanimity and would pave the way for a decision on Croatia joining the free movement area. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)