EU leaders will take stock, with the Commission, of the implementation of actions identified last February to limit migration flows to the EU (see EUROPE 13118/1).
A short discussion is planned to “keep up the pressure” on this issue and on the implementation of the actions decided at the last summit, a diplomatic source explained on Tuesday 21 March.
While some Member States might want to voice their concerns again, as Austria or the Netherlands did in February on secondary movements, no substantive discussion was expected on the eve of the EU Summit.
The latest draft conclusions, dated 21 March, were quite succinct, merely recalling that migration is a “European challenge that requires a European response”. The European Council will also review this “in June”, adds a short paragraph.
Member states are relatively “content” with the work done so far, one source summarised, although some are said to have wanted the EU leaders to have gone further last February.
During the summit, the issue of barriers at the EU’s external borders raised tensions, but the subject is not expected to be brought up on Thursday.
Letter from the Commission President
As a contribution to these exchanges, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent a letter to the heads of state and government on 20 March in which she took stock of the actions taken since the European Summit on 9 February.
She follows up on both the latest initiatives to boost the number of returns of irregular migrants to the country of origin or transit (see EUROPE 13141/3) and the assistance given to North African countries to prevent departures. The President said that the Libyan coastguard will soon receive two new boats to carry out search and rescue operations at sea.
Turkey will also receive a further €220 million for air surveillance.
On the internal dimension, the President indicated that 524 relocations of migrants have been carried out so far from Italy (397), Cyprus, Spain or Malta and that the transfers took place to France, Germany, Luxembourg, Croatia and Romania. This voluntary mechanism established in June 2022 has set a target of 10,000 relocations over one year.
See the draft conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/5yd
Link to Ms von der Leyen’s letter: https://aeur.eu/f/5y6 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with the editorial staff)