The Swedish Presidency of the EU Council has set ambitious goals for the reform of EU asylum and migration policies, at least on paper.
While the Czech Presidency has launched trilogues on various dossiers of the Asylum Pact (Eurodac) as well as the former ‘Asylum Package’ of 2016, Sweden is indeed planning, according to a provisional timetable dated 22 December, to continue this momentum and to obtain, during the ‘Home Affairs’ Council in June, general approaches to the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR, formerly the Dublin Regulation) and on Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR), the two ‘locomotive’ texts of the 2020 ‘Asylum and Migration Pact’.
While the EU Council received a partial mandate in December on the APR regulation, the Swedish Presidency has yet to translate the work done in Prague on the balance between solidarity and responsibility into legislative terms in the AMMR (see EUROPE 13079/10).
While some observers are also wondering how Stockholm will behave on the issue of migration when the Swedish government is associated with the far right, the official timetable still foresees finalising inter-institutional negotiations on the Eurodac ‘Migrant Screening’ regulations, as well as on the ‘Qualification and Reception Conditions for Asylum Seekers’ directives and the regulation on the European Resettlement Framework (see EUROPE 13088/6) in June.
This ambitious timetable would, in any case, be in line with the commitments made by the various EU Council Presidencies with the European Parliament in the roadmap signed in September (see EUROPE 13016/2).
In addition, Sweden is planning a general approach in March on the revision of the ‘single permit directive’, and in June on the revised directive on the status of third country nationals who are long-term residents.
The Swedish work programme does not mention the regulation on the instrumentalisation of migrants, which failed to convince the Member States in December (see EUROPE 13079/10).
Consequences of the war in Ukraine
Regarding home affairs, Sweden also plans to complete the Schengen area reform with a potential political agreement in June (the European Parliament has not yet adopted its mandate) and, also in June, a partial general approach on the regulation on the removal of child pornography online.
It will also host a new Schengen Council in March, with a new barometer issued by the Commission.
The Swedish semester will also be marked by the consequences of the war in Ukraine, with exchanges of views planned in March and June on the consequences for security in the EU or on human trafficking. The Presidency also intends to obtain a general approach in June on the revised directive on confiscation and freezing of assets, including those of oligarchs violating EU sanctions.
Link to the work programme: https://aeur.eu/f/4sn
Link to the provisional calendar: https://aeur.eu/f/4so (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)