After the Netherlands and Italy, eight Member States, namely Austria, Greece, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Slovakia, made their expectations of the discussion at the EU Migration Summit known on Monday 6 February through a letter from the leaders of these countries to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
Revealed by Politico and seen by EUROPE, the letter indicates that irregular migration has again become one of the “most pressing” issues in the EU.
“The situation calls for urgent political attention as well as concrete measures, also in order for Member States to give priority to people in need of international protection, including the Ukrainians”, they write.
The eight countries call for progress on the whole ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and on legislative proposals to address situations of instrumentalisation of asylum seekers.
While not citing the externalisation of asylum policies, these countries nevertheless call for “innovative methods” with partner countries.
The protection of external borders should be further strengthened, taking into account the “differences between land and sea borders and supporting Member States in their endeavours, including the deployment of infrastructure and pre-frontier aerial surveillance for maritime borders”, although the text does not mention fences or barbed wire.
Additional financial support within the existing EU budget should also contribute to the implementation of relevant operational and technical measures for effective border protection.
Rapid returns of illegally staying third country nationals must be further significantly increased by vigorously using all means of pressure - including visa, trade and development policies - to improve conditions for return and readmission.
The planned discussion at the European Summit on migration could in any case be disturbed by the question of European financing of anti-migrant ‘walls’ at the external borders.
On Monday 6 February, a new paragraph was added to the draft conclusions, calling for the “mobilisation of European funds and means to assist Member States in strengthening their external border control capacities and infrastructure”, in particular through air surveillance and equipment. However, this does not constitute a shift towards funding ‘walls’, but details the type of support the EU can provide.
The conclusions call on the Commission to rapidly finalise its new ‘Integrated Border Management Strategy’, which sets out, among other things, the needs in this area. The European Parliament has not yet taken a position on this new strategy.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/58u
Link to the provisional conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/58q (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)