On the evening of 8 June in Luxembourg, the EU’s Interior Ministers reached an agreement on two key pillars of the reform of asylum and migration: the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR), which covers, in particular, Member States’ solidarity efforts towards countries of first entry and the so-called Dublin rules, and the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR), which organises responsibility and creates an asylum procedure at the border.
Meeting since 9am, the Ministers succeeded in overcoming the main points of divergence through bilateral meetings. The keys to the agreement were in the hands of Rome and Berlin. By late afternoon, the qualified majority had been reached in terms of numbers, but Italy was still unable to support the texts, as were Greece, Malta and Austria.
Poland and Hungary were also unable to support this reform, with Poland contesting the estimated cost of €20,000 for a migrant it decides not to relocate.
A new discussion session was therefore convened at the very end of the day to make the final adjustments and win over Italy, whose agreement remained politically essential. The main open point concerned safe third countries and the personal link between a person refused asylum and the country to which they will be returned.
Under the APR, frontline Member States will have to apply the border procedure to people whose nationality is the subject of less than 20% of positive asylum decisions. These front-line countries would be required to complete this procedure within 12 weeks, and then carry out the returns within a further 12 weeks.
They should also have sufficient bed capacity at all times to accommodate these people subject to the border procedure.
But for Italy and other Med5 countries such as Malta, this return procedure cannot be entirely effective if there is a need to worry about the personal link between the returnee and the safe third country designated to take him or her in. This is a red line for the German government.
On Thursday, Italy also asked for adjustments to be made to the adequate annual capacity, set at 30,000 beds at EU level, for carrying out these procedures at the border, with a system of ceilings.
The ideas put forward during the day, as seen by EUROPE, suggested multiplying this annual capacity by a factor of 2 in the first year (i.e. 60,000 places, compared with a factor of 4 initially proposed by the Swedish Presidency to reach 120,000 beds), then by a factor of 3 in the second year and finally by a factor of 4 three years after the APR comes into force.
Rome warns against forced entry
In the morning, Italian Minister Matteo Piantedosi had been very clear on the need to improve the texts presented and not to proceed “by force” to the detriment of Rome.
Taking the view that strong domestic standards are not enough, the Minister called for stronger action at third country level and for strong support from Tunisia, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, will be visiting on Sunday.
The Greek and Spanish Ministers, also members of the Med5 group with Italy and in solidarity with Rome, had indicated their willingness to reach an agreement on 8 June and improve the two texts as much as possible.
But the other side of the equation involved the German government as well.
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz met the Italian Prime Minister on 8 June and assured her that Italy could not remain “alone” in the face of the influx of migrants, the German government began negotiations with a number of red lines, in this case on the fate of families with children under the age of 12 in the border procedure and on the connection link that Berlin considers essential in the conditions for the return of rejected asylum seekers.
Paris also partly supported Berlin on this point, considering that it would not be possible or even legal to send a person back to a third country with which they have no connection.
For countries such as Italy that are in favour of relaxing the connection link, this would make it easier to return people who have been refused asylum, thereby sparing themselves complex administrative procedures. Tunisia, in return for financial support, could then take on more people sent back from Italy.
Malta has strongly supported Rome on this point, advocating for new partnership agreements with safe third countries and hoping that this personal connection criterion will not slow down return procedures.
Poland and Hungary, for their part, rejected the drafts presented from the outset, including the amendments made during the day. The two governments reiterated their wish for the European Council to take up the issue and for a solution to be found on the basis of consensus at the level of the heads of state and government. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)