The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, urged the co-legislators, on Wednesday 13 September in Strasbourg, to conclude the work on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ at a time when an agreement “has never been so close” and when the European Parliament and the Council of the EU have an “historic opportunity” to show European voters and citizens that the EU “can manage migration with humanity and compassion”.
The co-legislators are currently negotiating regulations on asylum and migration management, asylum procedures, the screening of migrants at external borders and the new migration database, Eurodac.
However, the Council of the EU has not yet been able to agree on the mandate of the ‘Crisis’ Regulation, which covers emergency situations.
Germany is said to be the main country opposed to the text on the table, the main reason being that the provisions on minors are too weak. However, a diplomat told EUROPE a few days ago that this position was “somewhat isolated”, and that it could not hold for long if the EU Council wanted to succeed in validating all the texts of the Pact before March 2024, as it undertook to do in September 2022 with the European Parliament in a roadmap.
For Ursula von der Leyen, the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ in any case provides a “new balance between protecting borders and protecting people, between sovereignty and solidarity, between security and humanity”.
The President also returned to the agreement sealed in July with Tunisia, confirming to MEPs that “we want to work on similar agreements with other countries”, despite the fact that part of the European Parliament had again the previous day denounced this type of partnership as not sufficiently respectful of human rights (see EUROPE 13248/7).
International Conference on fighting people smuggling
On Wednesday, the President also announced the holding of an International Conference on fighting people smuggling and the networks of smugglers, which must be “brought to an end”.
In addition, Ursula von der Leyen indicated that she wanted to give greater weight to EU agencies in this area, such as Europol, Frontex and Eurojust, although no new initiatives were announced.
In the area of asylum and home affairs, she also confirmed the extension of temporary protection statuses for Ukrainian refugees in the EU, and once again called on the Member States to “finally bring” Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area.
Trilogues on the Pact on Migration and Asylum
Several interinstitutional negotiation meetings were held on 12 September in Strasbourg, notably on the Eurodac Regulation, the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM) and the Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR). On Eurodac, the negotiators will meet again on 10 October, according to one source. According to another source, significant progress has been made and a final agreement on this text is not out of the question for November. The open questions still concern the duration of data retention, minors and data on relocation. According to this second source, progress has been made on the last point, resettlement.
On the RAMM, the meeting on 12 September did not move the goalposts much either; it focused on the so-called ‘Dublin’ criteria, with the EU Council and the European Parliament opposed in their mandates to the addition of a criterion linked to diplomas obtained in the EU or to the extended definition of the family.
Regarding the APR, the negotiators have made progress, but have not yet found a definitive solution on free legal aid for asylum seekers at all stages of the procedure, which the EU Council refuses. They also discussed the age of unaccompanied minors, the appointment of a guardian and the methods for determining this age. These points still require technical work, said another source.
The next trilogues will take place during the next plenary session in October. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)