EU interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 14 October will again discuss the state of the Schengen area at a fourth ‘Schengen Council’, the political discussion forum established under the French Presidency of the EU Council.
They will have two other important debates on the migration route along the Western Balkans and on the future of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, for which the Czech Presidency of the Council has prepared a progress report.
There will also be a renewed focus on the security risks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how to deal suitably this winter with the millions of Ukrainians who have arrived in the EU.
On the Schengen area, the Commission will present a barometer of the latest trends at the external and internal borders, but also on internal movements: for example, transfers of asylum seekers under the Dublin provisions. Frontex will also present its latest risk analyses.
There will also be a briefing on the enlargement of Schengen to Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The Ministers will have the opportunity to return to the field mission currently underway in Romania and Bulgaria.
On Croatia, the Council of the EU is still waiting for the opinion of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, with the Czech Presidency hoping to be able to present the Council of the EU with a positive decision for all three countries by the end of the year.
At lunch, they will discuss the increasing migration flows on the Western Balkan route and will look in particular at visa policy and the non-alignment with EU policy of countries such as Serbia.
The Western Balkans migration route has seen a 190% increase in irregular border crossings in the first 8 months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. More than 86,000 border crossing attempts were recorded during this period, including 15,900 in August alone, according to the EU Council.
It is mainly Serbia’s non-alignment policy with regard to the visas it issues that raises concerns, as Vice-President Margarítis Schinás himself went to Serbia last week to ensure that the country, which has a visa liberalisation regime with the EU, does not allow non-EU citizens who can come to Serbia but need a visa to enter the EU, to easily arrive at the borders of member states (see EUROPE 13032/7).
This non-aligned policy, which some countries such as Austria see as problematic in that it would increase arrivals in Member States, also raises questions about the possible involvement of Russia, which could use Serbia to put pressure on the EU.
A diplomatic source nevertheless played down this hypothesis on 11 October, explaining that the increase in migratory flows on this Western Balkan route is not a new phenomenon and is also linked to high levels of arrivals from Turkey.
On asylum and migration, Prague submitted a progress report for discussion in which it takes stock of the reflections on the legislative part of solidarity, but also on the other texts of the Pact.
After several meetings on how to take forward the regulation on asylum and migration management (see EUROPE 13036/19) through flexible solidarity and a new concept of ‘flexible responsibility’, the Presidency will ask the Ministers to approve the direction taken.
Meeting with the European Parliament
In addition, on 10 October, the Czech Presidency met with the European Parliament officials responsible for the Pact.
According to one source, the meeting was positive and agreement could be reached to move forward on a sequence of texts, namely the Asylum Seekers ‘Qualification’ Directive, the Regulation on an EU resettlement framework and, potentially, the Eurodac Regulation.
The first two texts (from the former ‘Asylum Package’) have already been subject to Interinstitutional Agreements in 2018 and the EU Council would be willing to agree not to reopen them. On Eurodac, the European Parliament could also agree, subject to the lifting of certain objections raised by groups, to confirm its position and enter into trilogues with the Czech Presidency.
The regulation on the screening of migrants would not be in this first sequence, as the report by Birgit Sippel (S&D, German) has not been finalised and the European Parliament wants to see progress on solidarity before starting trilogues.
Links to reports: https://aeur.eu/f/3k2 ; https://aeur.eu/f/3k3 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)