At an informal ‘Home Affairs’ meeting in Budapest on Monday 22 July, the EU27 interior ministers and their representatives discussed ways of reducing illegal immigration towards the EU, and agreed on the need to develop new partnerships with third countries of origin and transit, along the lines of those undertaken with Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt.
“Without cooperation with third countries, there can be no progress”, summed up the Hungarian Interior Minister, Sándor Pintér, who also called for returns to be speeded up and for financial resources to be made available for these various policies.
One source confirmed that the concept of global partnerships enjoys a consensus within the Member States, even though the discussion was specifically focused on “innovative solutions” to reduce irregular arrivals in the EU (see EUROPE 13455/9).
While the European Commission maintained its announced ‘boycott’ of the informal meetings of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU on Monday, and was represented by the Director General of DG HOME, Beate Gminder, around ten ministers in office made the trip, including the ministers from Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Slovakia. Other countries, such as Germany and France, have sent Secretaries of State or Deputy Ministers of the Interior.
While the Hungarian Presidency’s work programme calls for such global partnerships with third countries, already in place with Tunisia and Egypt, to be replicated with the countries of the Sahel, citing Chad, Mauritania and Senegal, the ministers and ministerial representatives also referred to the letter sent in May by 15 Member States to the European Commission on the outsourcing of asylum applications, i.e. the processing of asylum cases in third countries (see EUROPE 13440/6).
Asked about the letter, the Hungarian Interior Minister confirmed that “a large number of countries” support it.
Although this informal meeting “was not intended to lead to any decisions”, he said he was certain that the next formal EU Council meeting in October would again consider the contents of this letter.
“Commissioner Ylva Johannson (Home Affairs, editor’s note) has promised to react”, added the minister, whose country did not sign the letter, “and we are waiting for a response”.
During the session, the Director General of DG HOME pointed out that the President of the European Commission herself, Ursula von der Leyen, who was just re-elected on 18 July, had said that she was ready to support reflection on these ‘innovative avenues’. She had done so in June in a letter to European leaders.
These ideas will also be incorporated into the strategic guidelines for legislative and operational planning in the area of freedom, security and justice currently being prepared by the EU Council.
In fact, during the debate, some delegations mentioned the possibility of setting up partnerships with Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal. Others have suggested ‘return hubs’, also mentioned in this letter from the 15, i.e. return centres in third countries. Visa policy, in particular the restrictive aspects of the visa code in the event of a lack of cooperation on the return of illegal immigrants, was also mentioned.
While the Member States obviously have their differences as to the type of ‘innovative’ solutions to be favoured, and some are opposed to the concept of externalising asylum, which has not been discussed as such, they are “generally all moving in the same direction of better cooperation with third countries”, said this source.
“These are central issues that concern the interior ministers and that we must take forward”, said the Austrian Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner. Citing the letter from the 15 Member States, he called for “thought to be given to the (personal) link criterion, to remove it, to evaluate it, so that we can make these models possible in the future, like the one Italy is applying with Albania or the Rwandan model (abandoned by the UK, editor’s note)”, he also commented.
The informal meeting also provided an opportunity to review the implementation of interoperability between European information systems, with the new entry/exit system due to come into force in November. This new system for managing the EU’s external borders will be similar to an automated computer system designed to record the entry and exit of travellers from third countries at the external borders. It will apply to people requiring a short-stay visa and to third-country nationals exempt from the visa requirement.
The EES will replace the manual stamping of passports. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)