The interior ministers of the Member States held a lengthy discussion in Brussels, on Thursday 9 March on how to better manage migratory flows to the EU and, in particular, how to improve the internal implementation of the Dublin rules that control the movement of asylum seekers between Member States.
Although this formal meeting was not intended to lead to any decisions, it nevertheless reconfirmed “the commitment of Member States to adopt the Pact on Migration and Asylum” by the end of the legislature, welcomed the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.
The Swedish Presidency of the EU Council intends to have the “Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM) and the Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR) adopted in June”, the Swedish Minister for Migration, Maria Malmer Stenergard, had also said earlier.
The Council of the EU is thus following the timetable set out in the Roadmap with the European Parliament and in return expects “the adoption by the European Parliament of its mandate on the screening regulation”, the Swedish minister added, as well as a trilogue agreement on the Eurodac regulation.
The Commissioner also indicated that she will present next week a new strategy for the integrated management of external borders and a recommendation on improving returns and the use of Frontex.
In addition, by June, the Commission will publish a report on the shortcomings of the application of the current Dublin framework.
Declaration by seven countries on the application of the Dublin rules
On the eve of this meeting, attention was focused on precisely this issue and the poor application of the current Dublin rules as the southern EU countries - the Med5 - struggle to implement elements of the ‘screening’ regulation, which tightens controls on migrants at the EU’s external borders.
In a joint statement issued on the evening of Wednesday 8 March following a meeting hosted by the Netherlands, six Member States - France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark - together with Switzerland “expressed their ongoing concerns on the current state of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and, in particular. of the Dublin system”.
Pending the revision of the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management, they called for the implementation of the current Dublin framework to be strengthened, particularly in the context of increasing arrivals in the Schengen area.
“The resulting implementation gap affects both the Dublin States spending considerable resources and efforts enforcing EU law, and asylum seekers in need of clarity about their individual rights, obligations and status”, they write.
Since the French Presidency of the EU Council, Member States have regularly discussed these difficulties, including those related to the transfer of asylum seekers to the responsible Member State, in the framework of a ‘roadmap’ on the application of the Dublin Regulation.
This roadmap should define the means for Member States to avoid the disappearance in the wild of asylum seekers to be transferred to the first competent country, to better prepare these transfers or to better exchange information.
It also addresses the administrative obstacles that prevent such transfers by asking the states primarily responsible to show “flexibility” and to accept “longer and more flexible arrival periods”, which may go beyond what is currently allowed under the current Dublin framework.
Although Italy was not officially named by the ministers of these seven countries, it is this country that is in their sight. On Thursday, several ministers from these countries met again bilaterally to discuss the improvement of transfers of asylum seekers to Italy, such as the French Minister, Gérald Darmanin, and the Swiss Federal Councillor, Élisabeth Baume-Schneider.
The “way Dublin works is very deteriorated”, commented the French minister on his arrival in Brussels.
It is a “very complex” regulation, which “no longer works with some countries like Italy; even before the Ocean Viking crisis, Italy took back one in ten people”, the minister added.
Link to the seven countries’ declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/5pt
Link to the Dublin roadmap: https://aeur.eu/f/5pu (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)