The French Presidency of the Council of the EU noted “unanimity” amongst the EU interior ministers on Thursday 3 February in Lille on their willingness to move forward gradually on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, reported the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, at the end of the meeting.
According to him, the ministers adopted the principle of making concrete and simultaneous progress, if possible, as early as the next formal EU Council in March, on the screening of migrants at the external borders as well as on a solidarity response involving either voluntary relocation of migrants and asylum seekers, in particular those rescued at sea, or “significant financial support” from countries that do not wish to receive them.
The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, confirmed this openness of all the ministers, referring to a “very constructive atmosphere”.
The objective of the French Presidency is to reach initial agreements either on 3 March, at the next formal Council, or in June. However, France would like to secure the first agreements under its Presidency. The month of February will therefore be very important, said the French minister, in order to detail in particular the elements of the ‘screening’ regulation that can move forward and define the equivalent solidarity response. The question of alternative methods to the detention of migrants to carry out the verification controls of migrants is another discussion that Paris wants to hold.
However, the Minister warned his partners that this solidarity response can only be given if the conditions of responsibility are met, i.e. if the frontline countries actually contribute to strengthening the protection of the external borders.
Another objective for the March Council, if possible, is for the European Union Agency for Asylum to provide Member States with an objective picture “of the various asylum legislations” in the Member States, the minister said, in order to address the problem of secondary movements of migrants and asylum seekers, who may choose to move to countries with more generous systems.
For Paris, it was in any case time to “change the method” after 18 months of fruitless discussions on the Pact, added Mr Darmanin. It is thus a question of breaking the “all or nothing” logic of the texts that make up the Pact on Migration and Asylum, while respecting its philosophy.
The first step will be to promote the adoption of the Eurodac Regulation and thus move towards the interoperability of the various databases. On voluntary relocation, the minister acknowledged that discussions would still be held on the type of criteria such as the size or wealth of the country. But he provided assurances that the Member States as a whole had also approved this principle of a solidarity mechanism.
In any case, they all “agreed to talk about it again”, with Gérald Darmanin adding that “we are well on the way to finding a sufficient number of countries”.
The 2019 Valletta agreement only had about ten volunteers. Belgium, for its part, has already indicated that it cannot participate in this coalition of volunteers, as its reception system is now completely swamped. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)