Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union continued their discussions on the various regulations of the 'Pact on Migration and Asylum' on Tuesday 21 November and will continue on Wednesday 22 November.
On Tuesday, they examined the texts relating to asylum procedures (APR) and Eurodac. On 22 November, they will discuss the Crisis Regulation and the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM).
But the big event will take place on 7 December, with a marathon day of trilogues during which both parties hope to reach as many political agreements as possible. At least, that is the intention of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which would like to wrap everything up during its term of office, but which, according to one source, is not necessarily giving itself the means to do so by not proposing enough compromise proposals.
Some people already have doubts about this timetable. On the APR regulation, in any case, the European Parliament took a very important step towards the Council of the EU on Tuesday, on the border procedure, by opening the door to acceptance of the compulsory nature of this procedure when the European Parliament mandate referred to an optional procedure. The Council of the EU is very strict on this point and could not envisage adopting the texts of the ‘Pact’ without this mandatory dimension.
Although no agreement was reached on Tuesday on this point, considered to be the most sensitive in the APR regulation, the European Parliament does want to set conditions and continue to exclude certain groups, such as families with children under the age of 12, from this border procedure.
Appeals and suspensory effect, the 'safe country' concept, inadmissibility of decisions and procedural deadlines were also discussed, but few of the chapters have now been concluded. The question of free legal aid for asylum seekers is also unresolved.
With regard to Eurodac (the database of asylum seekers and migrants), the discussions focused in particular on minors, resettlement, the inclusion of beneficiaries of temporary protection and the link with the future entry/exit system. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)