On Tuesday 14 October in Luxembourg, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union made progress on the mandatory mutual recognition of return decisions of irregular migrants in the EU issued by Member States.
Although no agreement has yet been reached on this issue at a formal meeting of the EU27 Home Affairs Ministers, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, has welcomed the progress made, while acknowledging that details still need to be worked out before a compromise can be reached. He said he was very confident that the EU Council would reach an agreement on the Regulation by the end of the year.
The Ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on 14 October should enable Copenhagen to sort out this issue and test support for its compromise proposals. According to a diplomatic source, discussions on this aspect, which will be followed by work at technical level, should be concluded by December.
On Tuesday, many delegations stressed the importance they attached to the rapid adoption of this Regulation, but there was no clear majority in favour of either compulsory or voluntary recognition, with many delegations, including the ‘big’ countries, not entirely opposed to or convinced by compulsory recognition, another source reported.
In its first compromise on the Returns Regulation, the Danish Presidency proposed extending the deadline for making mutual recognition compulsory to 2029 and offered Member States greater flexibility not to apply it (see EUROPE 13715/7).
The Ministers’ discussion, which was essentially devoted to this aspect and not to “return centres”, which no longer seem to meet with any opposition in the EU outside Spain, provided an opportunity to explain the difficulties involved in having to apply immediately a return decision issued by a national authority when the person concerned ends up on the territory of another Member State.
For Finland’s Minister of the Interior, Mari Rantanen, progress will have to be made towards a compulsory system, which would be synonymous with efficiency, as it would avoid the “bureaucracy and time wasted” in reproducing a new decision to return to its territory.
But some member countries are sceptical. While Spain is in favour of compulsory recognition, Belgium wants to ensure that this does not result in a host of new appeals and new provisions to be implemented.
“As we are faced with a high level of secondary migration, we are, like France, more reticent about its compulsory effect. We therefore need to look at how to avoid the perverse effects of mutual recognition”, warned Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt.
For Dutch Minister David van Weel, it is also important to know whether compulsory recognition will speed up the return process “or whether it will create new possibilities for appeal. For me, the most important thing is that it’s not just another element. If this created a new possibility of appeal in the new country on the basis of the recognition of the other decision, this would constitute a burden”.
Uganda and joint repatriation initiatives. The subject of “return hubs” (centres in third countries that would receive migrants refused asylum in the EU even if they are not their nationals) was not on the agenda.
But for The Hague, which recently signed a letter of intent with the Ugandan government to set up a return centre for people refused protection in the Netherlands, the meeting was an opportunity to explain how the system would work.
Designed in conjunction with the IOM and the UNHCR and observed throughout its development by the European Commission, without it voicing any criticism, according to one source, this future ‘return hub’ will send out the signal “that once your asylum application has been rejected in the EU, you absolutely must leave the EU. We will then help you to return to your country of origin, but at least it will be clear that you have no place in the EU”, said David van Weel.
And thanks to the cooperation with international agencies, the Dutch government will have “a clear vision of how these centres will operate with respect for human rights, as we would also do in the Netherlands”.
Germany’s Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt, for his part, has expressed an interest in potential partnerships between Member States to send people who cannot stay in the EU back to these ‘hubs’.
“My Dutch colleague pointed out that this could be organised as part of a joint initiative between Member States, so that returns could then be used simultaneously by several countries. We are prepared to conclude such agreements with our partner countries within the EU, in order to set up joint repatriation initiatives”, declared Mr Dobrindt. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)