On 30 January, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will invite the EU’s Home Affairs Ministers to an informal debate in Warsaw on innovative solutions to migration, particularly against the backdrop of growing difficulties within Member States to receive large numbers of migrants, according to the Presidency, and in the context of the instrumentalisation of migration by certain third countries.
On the same day, the Ministers will also be asked to contribute to the ‘Niinistö report’ on the EU’s resilience to the various threats, and will also discuss their priorities for the next ‘Internal Security Strategy for the EU’, scheduled for this year.
With regard to migration, the Polish Presidency’s starting point is that, recently, “an unfavourable trend has emerged in European societies. The capacity of Member States’ societies to receive large numbers of migrants is increasingly being put to the test, particularly in situations where some migrants are not seeking to integrate into the host society, but rather to form separate communities”, it points out in a background information note.
Migration processes have also begun to be exploited by governments hostile to the European Union.
While the Polish Presidency has just relaunched work on a 2021 Commission proposal on carriers that facilitate human trafficking or migrant smuggling, it considers that new partnerships of trust need to be established with third countries, in particular to ensure that concepts such as return centres can become a reality. But we must also ensure that the demands of the Member States on these third countries are not unattainable and do not end up weakening the EU.
The Presidency also wants to emphasise the security of the EU’s external borders and discuss the right to asylum in the context of the instrumentalisation of migration.
“An increasing proportion of the EU budget should be devoted to strengthening border infrastructure at land, sea and air borders with third countries. This issue must be taken into account in the forthcoming debate on the priorities of the next financial perspectives”, according to the note.
“At the same time, other measures need to be added to those already taken, which will not only provide a better response to the current diagnosis of the migration situation, but also to public expectations”.
We must also continue to adapt Community Law to current and future migratory risks. “The absence of alternatives to accepting applications for international protection and respect for the principle of non-refoulement should certainly be the subject of in-depth discussion”, the note stresses. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)