Over lunch on Friday 13 June in Luxembourg, the EU Member States’ Ministers for Home Affairs and Migration discussed the Regulation on returns, presented by the Commission in March, and ways of stepping up returns and readmissions.
For the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, managing migration and the EU’s external borders is precisely what will enable the Schengen area to be strengthened, he said at the final press conference, as the Ministers celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Schengen area of free movement on 12 June.
Although no decision was expected on Friday on the subject of returns, some Ministers wanted to take advantage of these discussions to reiterate their red lines and suggest ways forward.
This was the case for the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, who reiterated the priority that this return Regulation represents for Paris, while also expressing his rejection of the proposal for mutual recognition of return decisions.
“It’s a real step forward in terms of getting a better grip on the migration issue”, but the Regulation needs to be firmer, he said. France will insist on three points: the deadlines for the voluntary departure of illegal immigrants, which “they generally take advantage of to disappear into thin air”.
The Minister wants to reverse the rule and make voluntary departure an exception. With regard to the principle of mutual recognition of return decisions, “we believe that this is a dangerous principle”. “The countries of first arrival will make decisions on return, and other countries will have to apply what others have decided. In life, that never works out well. The principle that works best is the principle of responsibility. The person who makes the decision must also be the person who enforces the decision”.
Mobile phone searches. Finally, Paris also wants to ensure that the offence of illegal residence is criminalised. “When someone breaks into a national territory, it must be an offence. But it’s not just about the symbolism, it’s also about investigative powers. We need to be able to search mobile phones”, the French Minister said, hoping to make it easier for investigators to find potential links “with terrorism”.
“This enables us to use images and a certain amount of data to trace the trajectory of the illegal immigrant, their country of origin, the country they are staying in, and the country of transit”.
The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU will hand over the dossier to Copenhagen in July, and the Danish Presidency should in principle want to speed up the examination of the Regulation on returns.
The fact that a large majority of capitals want to move quickly on this issue should also help to speed up the work, even if, at this stage, the Danish Presidency is not yet in a position to bank on an agreement during its term of office.
The lunch on returns and readmissions was also an opportunity for countries such as Sweden to discuss the return of Syrians now that the EU has lifted its sanctions against the country.
“We note that the sanctions have been lifted, which is important. We need to move forward, but we also acknowledge that many Syrians are in different countries on temporary permits and we need to address the issue of returns so that the migration system works. Another fact is obvious: many Syrians have committed crimes”, explained Minister Johan Forssell, expecting the Danish Presidency to provide real impetus on this issue and organise a “strategic discussion”.
At the EU Council, Sweden also raised the need to strengthen the leverage of visa policy on returns and readmissions.
Spain, for its part, has also maintained its position on the new rules on returns, which the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, continues not to consider relevant. On his arrival in Luxembourg, he called for the full application of the Migration and Asylum Pact, which he said already contained solutions to improve returns. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)