On Tuesday 15 July, the Danish Ministers for Migration and Justice, Kaare Dybvad and Peter Hummelgaard, and the Danish Minister for Resilience and Preparedness, Torsten Schack Pedersen, outlined the priorities of their mandate between now and December to the Committee on Civil Liberties.
For Kaare Dybvad, this will involve making progress on the three major pieces of legislation presented in recent months by the Commission on returns, with return centres in third countries, and on amendments to the concepts of ‘safe countries of origin’ and ‘safe third countries’.
For the Minister for Justice, one of the main priorities will be to make progress on the regulation on the “removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet”, as the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU intends to put a great deal of energy into finding common ground, he told Assita Kanko (ECR, Belgian).
For Torsten Schack Pedersen, one of the main objectives will be to strengthen the EU’s resilience, particularly in the face of hybrid threats, but also terrorist threats.
On the issue of migration, Mr Dybvad wants to use the Danish Presidency to strengthen the European asylum system, which has cracks emerge since 2015, he explained. While the Asylum and Migration Pact was a “major step forward”, “structural problems remain”. In addition, migrants also find themselves the victims of smugglers or third countries that exploit them, and society “is asking us to react”, explained the Minister.
Faced with elected representatives such as Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French), who expressed concern that the pro-European majority had recently been bypassed by the EPP to take control, with the support of the PfE, of the ‘safe countries of origin’ dossier and to entrust the ECR with that of ‘safe third countries’, the Minister acknowledged that the rise of far-right parties must be a source of concern.
But he also felt it was necessary not to let them appropriate “legitimate” concerns of citizens, such as those about migration, and endorsed the country’s commitment to encouraging “innovative solutions” such as return centres in third countries and partnerships with key third countries to reduce arrivals.
However, the minister assured Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Dutch) that “it will be the responsibility of the EU to know how these people are returned” to the third countries selected. International law must also be respected at all times.
With regard to the new legislative framework on returns, the Danish Presidency has set itself the target of reaching an agreement in December. It also hopes to identify some sort of model for third countries that could host return centres, but no list of countries is expected to be prepared.
Member States interested in these schemes may not come forward until the legal framework for returns has been adopted.
Mr Dybvad has also made it a priority to complete the dossiers on migrant smugglers, namely the Europol regulation and the directive on the criminalisation of smugglers. While negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament (trilogues) have begun on the first, and could be concluded in the autumn, discussions have stalled in Parliament on the directive, as no vote has yet been called in the Committee on Civil Liberties. An agreement has yet to be reached with the EPP on aid for migrants.
As for the rest, the Minister for Justice also undertook to do his utmost to reach an agreement on the ‘anti-corruption’ directive. Responding to Chloé Ridel (S&D, French), Peter Hummelgaard even expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached soon. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)