Member States will hold a further political discussion on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ on 3 May to take stock of progress on the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR or ex-Dublin Regulation) and the Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR).
The Swedish Presidency aims to obtain a mandate on both texts in June and will ask the Member States whether they can accept the various compromises worked out in the different working groups.
While the European Parliament took a position on 28 March, several notable differences are already emerging, with the Swedish Presidency expecting, for example, not to have a majority in the EU27 to extend the ‘Dublin’ criteria (which help determine which Member State is responsible for an asylum application) to family members and siblings of a person already protected in a Member State, contrary to what the European Parliament and the Commission are calling for.
While the European Parliament advocates non-mandatory border procedures for Member States, the Swedish Presidency believes that, after many working meetings, the EU27 want to maintain the mandatory nature of these border procedures, which can however be adaptable according to the circumstances and in particular in relation to the definition of a Member State’s adequate capacity to carry out these border procedures.
This discussion, the first under the Swedish Presidency, is expected to be the first major political test of the chances of success of the EU asylum and migration reform and of the roadmap agreed last September between the Member States and the European Parliament, according to which all the texts of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ must be adopted by February 2024.
In a discussion note dated 28 April, the Swedish Presidency summarised the direction of work in the EU Council on the balance between solidarity and responsibility. It will thus ask for the green light from the Member States to continue along the path begun by the French and then the Czech Presidencies.
It already believes that “considerable progress has been made on the solidarity component. This comprises a flexible mechanism in which the contributing Member State has full discretion about the type of solidarity contribution – relocation, financial or other measures where relevant – which are of equal value”.
The system therefore ensures “that no Member State will ever be obliged to carry out relocations or contribute more than its fair share. The Presidency considers that the emerging compromise on the solidarity mechanism is broadly accepted”, but balances still need to be found on responsibility and the border procedure.
A number of compromises are therefore proposed on the mandatory but ‘adaptable and practicable’ border procedure, concerning ‘adequate capacity’.
A method for calculating this national adequate capacity is also proposed, ensuring “the distribution of EU capacity across those Member States that will need to apply the border procedure” and based “on aggregating irregular border crossings and refusals of entry calculated over a three-year period”.
The Presidency also includes amendments on reducing a Member State’s period of responsibility for persons whose application has been rejected in the border procedure.
Contact group with the European Parliament
On Tuesday 2 May, the various European Parliament rapporteurs met with the EU Council Presidencies involved in this work on the ‘Pact’ since the beginning of 2022 and those to come.
According to one source, the European Parliament urged the EU Council to adopt its mandates in order to start trilogues on these two texts before the summer.
However, the European Parliament expects difficult discussions on several points of the reform and also expressed concern about the pace of work in the EU Council on the regulation on ‘crisis and force majeure’ situations.
Link to the note: https://aeur.eu/f/6nb (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)