Member States will again discuss, on Wednesday 17 May, the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the progress made on the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) and Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR), on which the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council has also submitted new compromises in an attempt to reach a political agreement (‘general approach’) at the ‘Home Affairs’ Council next June.
In the discussion note dated 12 May, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU states that it has already achieved, during the previous discussion on 3 May, broad elements of consensus on key points of these two regulations and believes that it is making good progress towards an agreement in June (see EUROPE 13174/5).
It therefore wants the discussion on 17 May to focus only on new aspects of these regulations, such as the possibility, with regard to the APR of setting an “annual cap” for the adequate capacity of Member States to carry out so-called “border” asylum procedures (a request that could suit the southern EU countries of arrival) or the possibility for these frontline states to carry out these border procedures at other places on their territory.
For the AMMR, or ‘ex-Dublin Regulation’, the Presidency wants to focus the discussion on the cessation or transfer of responsibility between Member States in cases where persons subject to so-called ‘Dublin’ transfers disappear into thin air or have had their asylum procedure rejected at the border. (“There would be a new rule here on the cessation of responsibility of the Member State that rejected the application in the border procedure. Liability will cease two years after the final rejection”).
This is still referred to as alternative solidarity measures or ‘voluntary responsibility offsets’: above a certain overall threshold of pledges to relocate asylum seekers, a Member State benefiting from solidarity could ask other Member States to take responsibility for examining the applications for international protection for which it is responsible instead of relocating.
Children under 12 years of age
Among the points on which there is already consensus, according to the Swedish Presidency, is the right for Member States not to “ automatically exclude families with children under 12” from the asylum procedure at the border and, therefore, not to exclude the possibility of detaining them together in a closed centre.
“A ‘no go’ for the European Parliament”, said a source at the end of last week, recalling that both the European Parliament and the Commission have ruled out the possibility of applying this fast-track procedure, which also combines a return decision in case of a negative decision, to vulnerable persons and children under the age of 12.
Link to the discussion paper: https://aeur.eu/f/6vy
Link to the latest AMMR and APR compromise texts: https://aeur.eu/f/6vz ; https://aeur.eu/f/6w0 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)