The MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties(LIBE) are invited, on Tuesday 28 March, to adopt their negotiation mandate on four legislative texts of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, namely the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR, ex-Dublin), the Asylum Procedures Regulation, including the Border Procedure one (APR), the ‘Screening’ of migrants and the Regulation on crisis management.
This vote will open negotiations with the EU Council on the ‘Screening’ regulation, on which Member States took a position last June (see EUROPE 12977/19). The Council of the EU will then have to adopt its mandate on the ‘AMMR’ Regulation and finalise its mandate on the ‘APR’ Regulation (see EUROPE 13088/6), possibly in June. However, it has not started work on the ‘Crisis’ Regulation and will therefore have to accelerate.
The European Parliament rapporteurs tried to coordinate their sometimes contradictory approaches and to establish coherent links between these different ‘Pact’ texts, carried by the EPP (AMMR), S&D (‘Screening’ and ‘Crisis’) and Renew Europe (APR) groups. There is a sufficient majority, even if groups like The Left, through the German Cornelia Ernst, claim that the whole Pact will weaken the right of asylum in the EU.
AMMR. The Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) organises solidarity in times of migratory pressure (through compulsory relocation measures or capacity building assistance) and determines the responsibility of Member States in processing an asylum application (‘Dublin’ criteria).
The Swedish rapporteur, Tomas Tobé (EPP), took a step towards the other groups by reintegrating the dimension of search and rescue operations at sea.
Member States will thus have to set out mandatory relocation commitments in their annual solidarity responses for those persons debarked after such operations.
In general, the activation of the solidarity mechanism and the annual solidarity reserve will be accelerated for the Member State under pressure. Solidarity will also have to be implemented more quickly for states facing arrivals at sea.
While the Dublin ‘first entry’ criterion remains unchanged, the sibling criterion as an element that can help determine a responsible Member State has been reintroduced. The criterion of having a degree or visa has also been extended.
“Where the application for international protection is made in the international transit area of an airport of a Member State by a third country national or a stateless person, that Member State shall be responsible for examining the application”, the text to be voted on stipulates as well.
A new criterion on previous residence (if the applicant has legally resided for at least 2 years in a Member State) is also added.
The European Parliament also retains, as a solidarity contribution, the possibility for a Member State not to return asylum seekers to a country under pressure which would be primarily responsible for the asylum seeker. These countries under pressure will also be able to ask for a 9 month delay to receive these asylum seekers for whom they are primarily responsible.
The report removes, as the EU Council has already done, ‘return partnerships’.
APR. The report by Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French) on asylum procedures now makes it optional to use the border procedure, which is supposed to speed up the examination of the asylum application and, in principle, lead to a return decision at the same time if the application is rejected. It will therefore be up to the Member States to decide whether or not to apply this procedure which, if used, will be accompanied by a reinforced mechanism for monitoring compliance with fundamental rights.
The latest compromises also introduce enhanced support from EU agencies for Member States using this procedure.
One of the sensitive issues was the suspensive effect of an appeal against a decision to reject the border procedure. Again, Member States will be able to choose whether or not the person concerned can remain on EU territory.
Screening. The draft report on the ‘Screening’ Regulation, tabled by the German MEP, Birgit Sippel (S&D), provides for all persons arriving irregularly at the EU’s external borders to be subject to security, health or identity checks within 5 days. This period may be extended by a further 5 days in the event of a crisis.
If necessary, and on the basis of an individual assessment of each case, Member States may detain a person subject to screening if other less coercive measures cannot be applied effectively.
The draft strengthens the safeguards for minors in this screening procedure and consolidates the obligation for each Member State to set up an independent monitoring mechanism to assess compliance with fundamental rights.
The latest compromise text also states that where a Member State “implements a border procedure for the examination of applications for international protection, the persons [...] shall not be authorised to enter the territory of that Member State during the screening”.
Crisis situations. The ‘Crisis’ regulation, tabled by Juan Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), covers “an exceptional situation of sudden mass arrivals of third country nationals or stateless persons by land or sea, including as a result of search and rescue operations, which may lead to a crisis situation in a particular Member State when it is of such a scale or has such repercussions as to render the ordinary and well-prepared asylum, reception, return or child protection systems of the Member State concerned inoperative”.
The Commission will assess the impact of such a situation on infrastructure, for example, and issue an opinion within a week. It will identify mandatory relocation needs on the basis of a reference key (also used in the ‘AMMR’ regulation).
Links to the latest compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/62l ; https://aeur.eu/f/62m ; https://aeur.eu/f/62n ; https://aeur.eu/f/62o (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)