An “historic” agreement for some, a “significant step forward” for others, but only a stage before further arduous negotiations with MEPs, which will begin on Tuesday 13 June for the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR).
While the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, and the Swedish Minister for Migration, Maria Malmer Stenergard, made no secret of their satisfaction, not to say emotion, on Thursday evening in Luxembourg, after the EU’s interior ministers largely agreed on this text and on the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR) (Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and Malta abstained and only Poland and Hungary voted against), the European Parliament’s political groups gave the agreement a more cautious welcome.
The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament directly expressed its dissatisfaction, speaking of an “inhumane” agreement that will force Member States to create more “camps” at their external borders, to the detriment of “human rights”.
German MEP Erik Marquardt also spoke out against German minister Nancy Faeser, who he accused had accepted an agreement which, according to him, will allow people arriving from Syria or Afghanistan to be placed in the new border procedure.
French MEP Fabienne Keller, the rapporteur on the draft regulation, welcomed the “significant” steps taken, but said that they “remain insufficient”. In particular, the Renew Europe MEP regrets that the EU Council has not yet adopted a position on the so-called ‘crisis’ regulation, which should nevertheless be the priority of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council from the beginning of July.
While the keys to the agreement were in the hands of Rome and Berlin throughout Thursday, a compromise was reached in the evening thanks to new wording on the concept of ‘safe third country’ and the link required by certain countries between the person whose right to asylum has been rejected and the third country to which he or she will be returned.
Rome also obtained a reduction in the responsibility of a Member State to one year in situations of disembarkation after rescue operations at sea, as well as an adjustment to the implementation of the annual capacity of 30,000 beds at EU level in order to carry out border procedures.
In the end, the issue of safe third countries was the most debated point, with Rome and Berlin, in particular, having completely opposing views. The solution found lies in the amendment of a recital (37) in the APR, which will leave it up to the Member States to determine whether there is a connection between a returnee and the safe third country that will take him or her in. This decision will be in the hands of the Member States, but they will have to comply with the legal criteria of the ‘safe third country’ concept, and this connection will have to be established on the basis of family links or more objective links that the rejected asylum seeker has with this third country. “There will always be a connecting link”, explains a European diplomat.
This flexibility left to the Member States, accompanied by conditions of respect for fundamental rights enabled Rome to accept the text. In addition, the Italian government is betting heavily on the measures that Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce this Sunday in Tunisia, where a financial agreement could be announced.
The ministers undertook to review the concept of safe third country one year after the entry into force of the APR.
Another element of the compromise is that the €20,000 that Member States will have to pay for each asylum seeker not relocated under the AMMR will be paid into a European financial vehicle set up by the Commission that could help fund projects in third countries.
For the rest, the texts adopted by the ministers on Thursday evening provide for compulsory solidarity, with annual commitments to relocate 30,000 asylum seekers.
With regard to the AMMR, the Member States have also strengthened the so-called Dublin rules by removing the criteria extending the notion of family and those linked to visas or diplomas.
They have also tightened up the conditions for transferring ‘Dublin’ persons, with automatic return to the country of responsibility and simplified notification and ‘take-back’ procedures. The main period of responsibility, i.e. for countries of first entry, is doubled from 1 to 2 years (except for people arriving by sea, where it is extended to 12 months).
The APR therefore creates a mandatory border procedure lasting a maximum of 6 months between the examination of the application and the return decision, and from which families with children under the age of 12 will not automatically be excluded, contrary to Berlin’s wishes.
On Thursday evening, Germany’s Minister for the Interior said she hoped that this point concerning families with children under 12 would be improved during the trilogues.
In addition, the border procedure will be applied to people whose nationality obtains less than 20% positive decisions on asylum applications. During this procedure, these people will not be considered to have arrived in the EU under the legal fiction of non-entry.
An annual capacity of 30,000 beds at EU level (in effect, up to 120,000 beds) will also be established with European funding. On Thursday, Commissioner Ylva Johansson indicated that the Commission could release up to €1 billion to support the implementation of these new texts of the Asylum and Migration Pact.
Rome managed to cap this capacity. It will only be necessary to reach a maximum of 60,000 beds in the first year (multiplying factor of 2), then 90,000 (3) and finally 120,000 (factor of 4) in the third year of implementation of the APR.
Each Member State will take its share of these 30,000 places, calculated in particular according to the scale of illegal crossings or refusals of entry.
For example, more than 42,000 people have arrived in Italy since the start of the year, mainly from Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Pakistan, according to Frontex.
Main points of divergence with the European Parliament
The serious business will begin on Tuesday with the AMMR, although it seems that the biggest battles will be over the APR, as the European Parliament’s mandate is very different from what has been agreed by the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13151/6).
The European Parliament mandate provides for a voluntary border procedure and excludes families with children under the age of 12 from this procedure.
The European Parliament has also called for compulsory but flexible solidarity on the AMMR, with each Member State able to determine the type of aid, but the report by Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish) nevertheless stipulates that 80% of Member States’ annual solidarity commitments should consist of relocations (of asylum seekers or people who are already refugees) and 20% of material or personnel support measures.
The European Parliament also relaxed and broadened certain ‘Dublin’ criteria, including a broader definition of siblings, while the Council of the EU decided the opposite. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)