The EU’s interior ministers are meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 8 June for an informal meeting dominated by asylum and migration reform and the agreement they will seek to reach on the draft Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) and Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR).
They will also meet later in a new ‘Schengen Council’ to review migrant arrivals in the area of free movement and internal operations, with several member countries continuing to carry out internal border controls.
The ministers will also discuss the implications of the war in Ukraine for the EU’s internal security, and will exchange views on violent extremism and terrorism.
But it is on the two matters of the ‘Asylum and Migration Pact’ that they are most eagerly awaited. The last two exchanges among the Member States, on Monday 5 and Wednesday 7 June, have not yet resulted in an agreement between the Member States, with many delegations having reservations.
“It’s 50/50, but I think there’s a good chance that the ministers will reach an agreement”, commented a diplomatic source on 7 June, following this new exchange among the Member States. “A landing area is in sight”, says another source, also believing that an agreement can be reached.
They will examine the latest texts submitted to the ambassadors on 6 June, which contain figures presented by some as stable. With regard to the AMMR (which also deals with the so-called ‘Dublin’ responsibility criteria), the latest proposals envisage, in terms of solidarity, an annual commitment by Member States to relocate 30,000 asylum seekers and financial aid of €600 million for States not wishing to receive asylum seekers.
For the APR, the adequate annual capacity at EU level would be 30,000, including beds, in terms of the resources needed to care for migrants subject to the border procedure and who therefore have little chance of obtaining asylum in the EU, given their country of origin.
Some countries are continuing to push for an annual ceiling beyond which they would not be obliged to carry out border procedures. And this ceiling is no longer in question, said the first source.
As a reminder, the AMMR would create compulsory solidarity at EU level for the first time, but each Member State would be able to choose its contribution. Each year, Member States would indicate the volume of aid they can provide, and in situations of migratory pressure, a Member State could ask to activate this solidarity pool. The Commission would quickly check that the conditions were met.
In the latest AMMR text, dated 6 June, nuance has been added: this solidarity must also be provided if the country has complied with the Dublin acquis and prevented shortcomings in its reception system. This addition would give countries that take a tougher stance some say over the aid given to requesting countries. (“In order to safeguard the functioning of this regulation, the contributing Member States should not be obliged to implement their solidarity pledges towards the benefitting Member State where the Commission has identified systemic shortcomings in that benefitting Member State with regard to the rules set out in Part III of this regulation that could result in serious consequences for the functioning of this regulation”.
The APR organises compensation for solidarity and asks front-line countries to process many more asylum applications via the border procedure, which sets the examination of asylum applications - including appeals - at 12 weeks and the enforcement of a return decision taken at the same time as the refusal of the asylum application at 12 weeks.
The regulation would not introduce mandatory detention, but it would require front-line countries to have a sufficient number of places in centres, open or closed, to carry out these procedures at the border and keep an eye on the people concerned. European funds would help countries to create these places.
In the event of a problem, the Commission could revise the annual commitments if they are insufficient. A solidarity compensation mechanism is also established in the AMMR; if the Member States do not reach 50% of their relocation commitments, other solutions could be found, such as transferring responsibility between countries, whereby the country of first entry under the Dublin regulation could ask another Member State to take responsibility for an asylum seeker in its place, for example if they arrived after a search and rescue operation at sea.
The latest AMMR text has also revised downwards certain periods of responsibility for countries of first entry, which has been proposed at 2 years for example (as opposed to 30 months) in the case of a migrant arriving irregularly on a territory.
“There’s no better chance than today to reach an agreement”, said our first source.
“It’s an extremely political issue”, they add, aware that the subject of migration brings down governments.
Despite this, the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council intends to rely on the envisaged qualified majority voting procedure, and will check on Thursday whether this has been achieved. But it would be difficult to do without a green light from Italy.
In any case, the ministers’ discussions is not expected to focus on technical details. Primarily, it will be a question of the southern EU countries weighing up the volume of their solidarity commitments and the obligations to be applied in return. Some Member States would also like to make border procedures stricter.
Finally, the latest discussions could also focus on the concept of safe third countries (with low recognition rates for asylum applications lodged in the EU), in connection with the border procedure.
Links to the documents: https://aeur.eu/f/7at ; https://aeur.eu/f/7au (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)