The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed, on the evening of Monday 14 October, in a letter to the European leaders who will be meeting in Brussels on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October, her intention to propose new legislation to accelerate the ‘returns’ to countries of origin or transit of people illegally present in the EU, as requested by a majority of countries on 10 October in Luxembourg (see EUROPE 13501/1).
She also confirmed her intention to explore innovative solutions and “possible avenues regarding the idea of developing return platforms outside the EU, in particular with a view to a new legislative proposal on return”.
The President states that “with the entry into force of the Italy-Albania protocol (operational since Monday 14 October, editor’s note), we will also be able to learn from this experience in practice”.
With regard to returns, the President stresses that the EU’s migration policy “can only be sustainable if those who do not have the right to stay in the EU are effectively returned. However, only around 20°% of third country nationals ordered to leave have actually returned.
We will “need a new legal framework to step up our capacity to act. Member States’ return procedures and practices vary significantly: we need to build a level of harmonisation and trust that will ensure migrants who have a return decision against them in one country cannot exploit cracks in the system to avoid return elsewhere”.
With the 2018 proposal “left without agreement and considering past discussions, the Commission will present a new proposal for legislation that would define clear obligations of cooperation for the returnee, and effectively streamline the process of returns, with digitalisation of case management and mutual recognition of each other’s decisions. (...) This will be one of the immediate tasks of the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration (Austrian Magnus Brunner).
Accelerate the ‘Pact’. Responding to requests from certain Member States to bring forward the implementation of the ‘Pact’, the Commission “stands ready to accelerate the implementation of certain elements of the Pact”, the President also writes.
Ms von der Leyen states that the timetable must remain “ambitious”, even if the two-year deadline for transposition is justified by the scale of the task. “Moving swiftly on the implementation of the Pact could help Member States manage their registration and reception systems more efficiently”, as well as “asylum procedures of security cases and abusive or likely unfounded claims”. The aim is also to improve the application of the Dublin rules and reduce secondary movements, while introducing elements of the solidarity mechanism.
In her letter, Ursula von der Leyen also calls on the Europeans to pursue the establishment of global partnerships with key third countries as part of an overall deepening of relations.
For her, these partnerships have produced positive results. “In 2024 so far, irregular arrivals are down by around two thirds on the Central Mediterranean route. In large part, this can be attributed to intensified migration management and anti-smuggling operations carried out by the Libyan and Tunisian authorities ” as well as “sustained engagement with key partners such as Egypt, Morocco and Algeria”.
But we also need to “deepen the partnership underway with Mauritania, and we also need to see how to incentivise other partners such as Senegal and Mali to work with us on migration”, writes the President, at a time when arrivals in Spain are on the rise.
The President proposes as well to “step up the use of leverage through our visa and other policies”, such as trade. “Extending the current Generalised Scheme of Preference Regulation to December 2027 without readmission conditionality, despite the Commission’s proposal, is a missed opportunity that should be corrected at the first possible occasion”.
Italy/Albania agreement in force. The 2023 agreement between Rome and Tirana came into force on 14 October. It concerns adult men intercepted by the Italian navy or coastguard in Italian waters, who are then returned to Albania where their asylum claims will be processed in accordance with Italian and European law.
On 14 October, Italy transferred a first group of 16 migrants to centres in Albania, reported AFP.
Irregular crossings down. According to the latest monthly statistics from Frontex, published on Tuesday 15 October, the number of irregular border crossings detected since January 2024 has fallen by 42% compared with last year.
Frontex points out that the biggest falls in irregular crossings into the EU were along the Western Balkans route (down 79%) and the Central Mediterranean (down 64%), while crossings along the EU’s eastern border, towards Poland, and on the western route from Africa increased by 192% and 100% respectively.
Link to Frontex statistics: https://aeur.eu/f/dwa
Links to the letter and its appendix: https://aeur.eu/f/dw5 ; https://aeur.eu/f/dw6 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)