On Thursday 15 December, the negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council managed, as the roadmap for the ‘Asylum and Migration Pact’ commits them to do (see EUROPE 13016/2), to conclude the interinstitutional negotiations on the directive on the reception conditions for asylum seekers and on the regulation establishing an EU framework for the resettlement of refugees from third countries.
The substance of these matters, presented in 2016, will no longer be reopened, says a source, although technical adjustments are still required. The final confirmation date for these agreements will therefore be set at a later stage and may be linked to other elements of the new pact.
Negotiations on these two texts, which had been the subject of provisional agreements since 2016, stalled in 2018, as the parties involved at the time wished to put these agreements on hold until the other texts of the 2016 ‘asylum package’ had been concluded. The Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU had also asked the European Parliament at the end of 2018 to reopen the content of these three texts, which it refused to do (see EUROPE 12109/14).
In parallel with the near-finalisation of these two matters, the co-legislators also started negotiations on 15 December on the regulation on the ‘Eurodac’ database of migrants and asylum seekers, following the confirmation on 12 December in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties of the mandate given to Jorge Buxadé (ECR, Spanish) (see EUROPE 13083/21).
The start of negotiations on Eurodac is also part of the arrangement established in the roadmap to make progress on the texts of the ‘ Asylum and Migration Pact’. The first trilogues on the ‘screening’ regulation for migrants are expected to be held early next year.
However, the co-legislators have not yet met to finalise the ‘qualifications’ directive for asylum seekers, which has also been pending since 2018. They will meet in January. It was not certain on Thursday 15 December that this meeting could still take place before the end of the year.
Reception conditions for asylum seekers. Under the finalised agreement, registered asylum seekers will be able to start work earlier, no later than six months after registration, compared to nine months currently. Reception standards should be harmonised in all Member States in terms of housing, health care and a minimum standard of living for asylum seekers. However, the new rules should prevent asylum seekers from moving around the EU after registration, as they may lose their rights obtained in a Member State after a certain period of time. The aim here is to combat secondary movements.
Each unaccompanied minor will be assigned a guardian no later than 15 days after the application for protection is filed. In addition, children must enter the school system within two months of arrival.
Resettlement. This is the first European framework for the resettlement and humanitarian admission of particularly vulnerable persons, eligible for refugee status or subsidiary protection. Resettlement will remain voluntary, with no minimum annual figure set in this regulation. The EU should nevertheless put forward, as it already does, targets for specific regions and countries with a two-year planning horizon.
Malin Björk (The Left, Swedish), the rapporteur on the issue, welcomed this step, saying that the framework “opens up a safe and legal route to Europe for thousands of extremely vulnerable refugees around the world”.
Eurodac. Thursday’s meeting allowed the various parties to set out their positions. A further technical meeting will be held in January. According to one source, a common desire to move forward quickly has been expressed, but the European Parliament will be vigilant about the progress the EU Council makes on the solidarity aspect of the pact.
The EU Council and European Parliament mandates differ on several points, including the inclusion in Eurodac of a category for people disembarked following rescue operations at sea, although this was not presented as a priority on Thursday. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)