The Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council has promised to act as an “honest broker” in all policy areas over the next six months, and this will also be the case for migration and home affairs, even though Budapest continues to oppose the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and has voted against the dozen or so new legislative texts.
While the fight against irregular migration into the EU is one of Hungary’s seven main priorities, with a focus - as Hungary’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Bálint Ódor, reiterated on 2 July at an event at the European Policy Centre (EPC) - on developing comprehensive agreements of the type with Tunisia or Egypt with new third countries, the Hungarian Presidency will not slow down work on implementing the ‘Pact’ and plans to include progress reports and exchanges of views at the formal EU ‘Home Affairs’ Councils in October and December.
The fight against illegal immigration and the external dimension of migration will, in any case, be on the agenda of the informal ‘Home Affairs’ meeting on 22 July in Budapest, as will the implementation of rules for the interoperability of information systems.
With regard to illegal immigration, the Hungarian Presidency intends to work on “appropriate solutions” and strengthen the external borders by also improving the implementation of return and readmission agreements with third countries, added the ambassador.
Following the example of some fifteen Member States who made such a request to the Commission last May, the Hungarian Presidency will encourage reflection within the Member States on “innovative solutions in the field of asylum”, according to the Hungarian programme, which does not, however, mention the term ‘externalisation’ of asylum or cite examples of schemes currently being tested.
The Presidency will continue “the discourse on the implementation of the reforms concluded under the Belgian Presidency. Bearing in mind the weaknesses of the system, in order to improve the resilience of the Common European Asylum System, the Hungarian Presidency will encourage Member States to exchange views on innovative solutions in the field of asylum”.
Hungary also hopes to conclude the review of the mechanism for suspending visa-free regimes granted to third countries whose nationals subsequently lodge asylum applications in the EU, and to launch a comprehensive review of the EU’s visa-free regime, the programme adds.
In the area of Home Affairs, the Presidency still wants to continue work on the fight against drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings, and to try to obtain a general approach - and possibly open trilogues with the European Parliament - on the regulation relating to the removal of online child sexual abuse material following the failure of the Belgian Presidency. At this stage, the timetable provides for a progress report on this regulation in October and a general approach in December.
The Hungarian Presidency will also seek to finalise the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, and expects this decision to be adopted at the December EU Council. For now, Austria is vetoing the full entry of these two countries into the travel area, i.e. the lifting of land border controls, but Vienna could be in a different frame of mind after the legislative elections scheduled for autumn.
As for the conclusions, the Hungarian Presidency plans to adopt conclusions on the fight against environmental crime and counter-terrorism.
Links to the programme and provisional timetable: https://aeur.eu/f/crs ; https://aeur.eu/f/cwp (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)