The European Commission’s proposal to come to Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia’s aid so as to manage migrants instrumentalised by Belarus was widely contested by the European Parliament on Wednesday, 15 December (see EUROPE 12844/1), with left-wing groups arguing during a debate that it undermines the fundamental right to asylum when other forces such as the ECR believe that it encourages a new migration route into the EU.
The proposal for an EU Council decision that was put on Member States’ table on 1 December allows these three countries to implement exceptional measures—adapting or derogating from the current rules on asylum and migration management. They are notably allowed to not offer the same reception conditions as those that they must provide to ‘traditional’ asylum seekers.
But the S&D, the Greens/EFA, The Left, and, to a lesser extent, Renew Europe have reiterated their poor opinion of these derogations which, according to Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands), amount to “legalising pushbacks”. For Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany), the measures presented as “relentless” [efforts] against the Belarusian regime are in fact relentlessly “against the people who need help”. On Tuesday, French MEP Sylvie Guillaume had felt that the fact that European Commission had taken up these measures during its Schengen review was dangerous.
By way of reminder, French MEP Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe) said that while the EU is “expected to be able to protect its borders”, it is also expected “to fulfil its humanitarian obligations” and that the system in Article 78.3 “cannot weaken the fundamentals of the right to asylum”. It is thus necessary to allow people who are still currently blocked between Belarus and Poland to enter the EU.
Poland said early on that it opposed these measures, which it sees as still too generous to migrants, and no further discussions in the EU Council are planned for 2021, a source indicated on 16 December. The European Parliament is simply being consulted on this matter. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)