Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union made very limited progress on Thursday 7 December during a day of trilogues on the various texts of the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’.
This includes regulations relating to: - Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM), which organises solidarity in times of migratory pressure and determines the responsibilities of Member States in the event of an asylum application; - Asylum Procedures (APR), which includes the border procedure to speed up procedures for people with little chance of obtaining asylum; - Eurodac, the major migration database; -’screening’ of migrants, which will oblige Member States to carry out security and health checks on anyone crossing the external border illegally; - crisis situations, where there is a mass influx of people or situations of instrumentalisation.
From the European Parliament’s point of view, it was a disappointing and even frustrating day. French MEP Damien Carême (Greens/EFA), shadow rapporteur on RAMM, denounced the “intransigence of the Council of the EU ”.
He also fears that the texts on the table, if adopted in line with the demands of the Member States, would “only reinforce the most problematic elements of the current system and increase the risk of fundamental rights being violated”.
On RAMM, as on other regulations, the negotiators have postponed the resolution of major points until the trilogue on 18 December, and in the meantime will be engaged in technical work on the elements for which some openings have been made.
On RAMM, the Council of the EU has indicated that it is open to including the criterion of diplomas under certain conditions.
With regard to the European Parliament’s request for concrete solidarity measures, based on relocation, for people rescued at sea, the discussions were also timid, with the EU Council taking a few small steps. On this point, it could take into account the situation of Member States receiving people disembarked after being rescued at sea in the definition of migratory pressure, but no commitment has been made on solidarity responses such as relocation.
On the APR regulation, the Presidency has remained closed on the exclusion of minors and families from the border procedure, and this point will probably have to be decided on 18 December. However, the Council has taken a few steps, which are still considered to be timid, with regard to the other normal asylum procedures, where the Council of the EU, in its former mandate of 2016, also provided for many derogations and longer deadlines.
On the concept of a safe third country, the two parties could return to the Commission’s initial proposal, using the definitions in force that are compatible with the Geneva Convention. The Presidency would have gone back a little on the notion of the consent of the rejected asylum seeker, by virtue of which the latter would agree to go and seek protection in such and such a safe country. This consent was the Council’s way of weakening the obligation to establish a link with the third country. Here again, however, the technical work needs to clarify the Council’s openness.
It would also have taken a step towards free legal aid, but again with safeguards.
About 'Screening’, the two parties made very little progress on the two points considered to be the most difficult: the location of screening at the border or throughout the territory, and the extension of the mechanism for assessing respect for fundamental rights to border surveillance. Some progress has been made in providing assistance to minors in this procedure and in extending the screening period to 7 days.
On the regulation on crisis situations, the European Parliament has reportedly taken a step towards including instrumentalisation, in addition to cases of force majeure, but the legal and practical consequences in terms of new derogations continue to divide the two parties and have not been clarified.
Finally, concerning Eurodac, work still needs to continue on the inclusion of a temporary protection category.
The Member States will take stock of the negotiations on Sunday 10 December. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)