On Wednesday 4 October, the representatives of the Member States finally managed to reach agreement on the ‘Crisis’ regulation, the last outstanding text of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, after final adjustments were made to the text in favour of Rome, which had held up an agreement last Thursday at the meeting of EU interior ministers (see EUROPE 13260/1).
Italy and Germany were therefore able to give their assent to this text by voting in favour, while Poland and Hungary voted against. Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic abstained, a source said.
The latest version of the text sent to the Member States on the evening of Tuesday 3 October had deleted a paragraph concerning NGOs in crisis situations, and a further change was introduced in a recital on Wednesday morning.
The deleted paragraph stipulated that “humanitarian aid operations should not be considered as instrumentalisation of migrants when there is no aim to destabilise the Union or a Member State”.
However, this statement is maintained in the ‘instrumentalisation’ section of the regulation.
The ‘mini’ change made on Wednesday morning, as another source put it, concerns the addition of a new recital reiterating the same thing (humanitarian aid operations must not be considered as instrumentalisation of migrants when they are not aimed at destabilising the Union or a Member State).
With this agreement, MEPs are thus expected to agree to resume the political negotiations that had been suspended on the ‘Migrant Screening’ and ‘Eurodac’ texts. Negotiations can also begin on ‘Crisis’ as demanded by the European Parliament.
Under this regulation, in a situation of crisis or force majeure, Member States may be authorised to apply specific rules concerning the asylum and return procedure. For example, among other measures, registration of applications for international protection can be completed no later than four weeks after they are lodged, thereby easing the burden on overburdened national administrations.
A Member State facing a crisis situation may request solidarity contributions from other EU countries in the form of relocation of asylum seekers or beneficiaries of international protection from the Member State in crisis to contributing Member States, compensation for responsibility (Dublin criteria), financial contributions or alternative solidarity measures.
These exceptional measures and solidarity support will require the EU Council’s authorisation.
On Tuesday 3 October, two trilogues were held in Strasbourg on the ‘Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR)’ and the ‘Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR)’, but no concrete decisions were taken.
On APR, one of the key issues is whether or not the border procedure is mandatory. The solidarity mechanism contained in the AMMR also remains a complex issue on which the negotiators have not yet been able to make decisive progress.
Links to the latest texts: https://aeur.eu/f/8v9 ; https://aeur.eu/f/8vc (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)