The EU’s interior ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Thursday 10 October to discuss the state of health of the Schengen area of free movement, as well as how to strengthen the EU’s external borders and speed up the return of illegal immigrants, including those posing a more specific security risk in the EU.
The ministers will also review the state of progress of the draft regulation on the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet (CSAM), at a time when the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU has also had to abandon its request for a partial orientation due to the lack of a majority.
On the subject of the Schengen area, the European Commission will present the latest figures and trends, particularly in terms of illegal arrivals. The discussion could also shift to the recent new measures decided by Member States at their internal borders, such as the new German or Swedish controls.
Although Poland indicated a few weeks ago that it wanted to receive a strong response from Germany’s neighbours, they were not approached and, according to some sources, no draft declaration of the neighbouring countries’ discontent had been prepared ahead of the Luxembourg Council.
The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will also once again test the willingness of Member States to fully integrate Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area, which Budapest has made a priority. To date, only Austria has blocked full accession. However, no decision is expected on this subject on Thursday.
Over lunch, the ministers will then discuss a particularly sensitive issue, namely the return of irregular migrants to their country of origin, transit or another safe third country. They will discuss new innovative solutions such as ‘return hubs’, which were first mentioned in May in a letter from 15 Member States, and, more generally, how to strengthen cooperation with third countries, while also pushing for a revision of the current Returns Directive approved in 2008.
Seventeen Schengen countries have recently made this request (see EUROPE 13498/13) and, according to a European diplomat, the aim is to send a “clear” message to the future Commission to influence its work.
With regard to ‘return hubs’, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU has already launched discussions on the feasibility at a technical level (see EUROPE 13494/4); on Thursday, the ministers will have to clarify what this concept covers and how it could be implemented, according to this diplomatic source.
Still no majority on the ‘CSAM’ dossier. Earlier this week, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union finally decided not to seek an agreement between the Member States on Thursday 10 October on the ‘CSAM’ dossier, having noted the persistence of a blocking minority.
With a new text with a restricted scope (the detection orders do not apply to new CSAM material detected by the technologies or to attempts at sexual solicitation of minors), the Presidency is getting closer to an agreement, according to several sources, but has not managed to convince that the detection orders applied only to content already known would not endanger the personal freedom of private messaging users.
Countries such as Germany remain concerned about the text, as does the Netherlands, which has renewed its red lines in recent days and believes that a balance has yet to be found. The country considers in particular that technologies currently envisaged to detect known content do not yet remove all the risks, particularly in terms of respect for individual freedoms and privacy.
The Hungarian Presidency will now try to obtain an agreement at the December EU Council. If so, the new Commission may be asked, under the Polish Presidency, to come up with new ways of breaking the deadlock on this issue, which has been bogged down since 2022.
The ministers’ agenda also includes a progress report on the interoperability of information systems and the entry into force of the entry/exit system, still officially scheduled for mid-November.
According to another source, however, a launch date of 10 November is unlikely, and the Commission will be asked on Thursday to tell ministers how a more realistic route can be found to launch the system.
The ministers will also discuss organised crime in the EU and the impact of external conflicts on security in the EU. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)