On Monday 17 July, Birgit Sippel (S&D, German), the rapporteur on the regulation on the ‘screening’ of migrants gave the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties a rather mixed assessment of the three negotiating sessions with the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council (18 April, 25 May and 28 June), while a further meeting will be held with the Spanish Presidency in September.
The regulation imposes security, health and identity checks on anyone arriving at the EU’s external borders, for up to 5 days (see EUROPE 13166/3).
During the three meetings held since April, the European Parliament and the EU Council noted that there are still major points of divergence to be overcome, with the EU Council, for example, asking for time to analyse whether it can apply the provisions of the Reception Conditions Directive to people subject to screening, explained the MEP. For the European Parliament, “this is not even a question” and the European Parliament even wants to extend the rules on detention laid down in the Reception Conditions Directive to people subject to screening who are not applying for asylum.
At a meeting, the European Parliament also rejected the possibility of Member States carrying out screening procedures elsewhere in the country, and not just at the external border.
Another point of divergence is the European Parliament’s request to set up a mechanism to monitor respect for fundamental rights when these checks are carried out, and to devote a specific article to respect for fundamental rights, added the German. The EU Council would not have wanted to extend this monitoring mechanism to the famous border procedure, governed by the Asylum Procedures Regulation.
More generally, Birgit Sippel said she was “personally disappointed” at the lack of substantive arguments put forward by the Swedish Presidency to justify these disagreements, particularly on the fundamental rights mechanism. And while time is running out to reach agreement on all the texts of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, the MEP, like Sophie in ’t Veld (Renew Europe, Dutch), also warned the EU Council on Monday against going back on old texts that had already been provisionally agreed.
MEPs also made progress on the ‘Screening’ regulation conditional on a “general approach” to the ‘Crisis management and force majeure’ regulation, which the EU Council began examining in June, said Birgit Sippel (see related article). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)