Member State experts will meet again on 18 April in the Asylum Group of the Council of the EU to discuss a new compromise text on the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (‘AMMR’).
On the same day, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council will start the first trilogue meeting on the Asylum Procedures Regulation on the basis of the partial mandate adopted by the EU Council in December. The European Parliament, for its part, adopted its negotiating mandate on 28 March (see EUROPE 13151/6) when it voted on the report by Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French).
The new compromise on the AMMR, dated 12 April, covers, among other things, the functioning of the annual migration management cycle, which is supposed to anticipate the needs of Member States in relation to expected arrival volumes, and the modalities for triggering the solidarity mechanism towards Member States under pressure.
The solidarity mechanism will be compulsory for Member States, but they will be able to decide how to contribute, between relocating asylum seekers or providing financial or material support.
The new text revises, for example, the functioning of the ‘European Strategy for the Management of Asylum and Migration’, which was initially to be adopted by the Commission.
The new text returns importance to the role of Member States, which will adopt their national asylum and migration strategies (including strategies to ensure that they have adequate resources to run their asylum systems properly). In addition, to ensure that each Member State identifies the same elements that are considered adequate, a common template will be established.
The annual report on migration will continue to be adopted by the Commission and will have to be accompanied by a decision on whether the reporting Member States are indeed subject to migratory pressure or are likely to be subject to migratory pressure in the coming period.
In order to provide predictability for Member States under migratory pressure and contributing Member States, the report and decision should then be accompanied by a recommendation identifying the concrete annual solidarity measures and their numerical scale likely to be needed for the upcoming year at Union level, with minimum annual figures for relocations and direct financial contributions to be set out in the Regulation.
“For practical reasons, alternative solidarity measures should not be included in these minimum thresholds”, the text states.
With regard to the relocation of asylum seekers, contributing and receiving Member States should have “the possibility of expressing their preferences as to the persons to be considered”, although relocation should primarily apply to applicants for international protection and the most vulnerable persons.
The Commission will retain the right to revise the minimum thresholds upwards, if it considers that the needs are not met.
In procedural terms, the text also adds that, in order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, certain implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission, “with the exception of decisions determining whether a Member State is under migratory pressure, at risk of migratory pressure, or facing a significant migratory situation”.
The Swedish Presidency expects to obtain a mandate on this regulation in June.
Link to the document: https://aeur.eu/f/6c8 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)