The French Presidency of the EU Council still hopes to conclude its step-by-step approach for the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ by the end of June and achieve both a breakthrough on the ‘Eurodac’ and ‘Migrant Screening’ regulations and a declaration of solidarity committing as many Member States as possible to carry out relocations in support of frontline countries, notably for people disembarked after rescue operations at sea.
This ambition was tested again on Friday at a discussion of the permanent representatives of the Member States, and received new support as the war in Ukraine has slowed down the work somewhat.
The French Presidency now intends to submit two new draft compromises on the ‘Eurodac’ and ‘Screening’ regulations, in principle on 6 and 13 May, with the compromise on Eurodac to include the category of persons rescued at sea, which has not been agreed upon in recent months. 18 May is the day that the Presidency will try to obtain progress on its declaration of solidarity, as Paris also wants to associate these intentions of solidarity and relocation with sufficiently concrete elements for the countries of the south of the EU to subscribe to them.
However, the French Presidency will not be able to make further progress on the other texts of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, such as the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR, ex-Dublin) or asylum procedures, while the European Parliament is aiming to vote on its mandate, at least for the AMMR, in July and is currently seeking a compromise.
It is to clarify the coherence of the work between the EU Council and the Parliament that a roadmap on the key steps and dates of the asylum and migration reform will be prepared with the Parliament and the next EU Council Presidencies, with the Parliament and even the Renew Europe group being at the origin of this request for a roadmap, says a source.
“The terms of this roadmap will have to be negotiated”, the source said, as the European Parliament wants to avoid the EU Council taking up the AMMR or APR regulations too late, which could jeopardise the chances of getting the reform adopted during this legislature.
The French Presidency is due to meet the European Parliament’s ‘Asylum and Migration’ Contact Group in the near future.
While the 29 April discussion was positive overall, there were different sensitivities regarding the balance between responsibility and solidarity, with divergences still present on the binding nature of solidarity commitments, a source reported. The frontline countries in the south of the EU will not be prepared to sign up to a vague declaration that does not oblige Member States. To be credible, this declaration must also bring together a maximum number of countries, which is not yet a given, as the question of the involvement of countries such as Poland is still being asked, as the country has wanted to demonstrate, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, that it can manage the thousands of refugees on its soil on its own. Positions remain “frozen”, commented another source.
France’s ambition is, in any case, to try to obtain a mandate on Eurodac or the ‘Screening’ regulation at the Home Affairs Council on 10 June or, at the latest, by 1 July. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)