At the plenary session on Wednesday 12 November, MEPs gave a lukewarm response to the European Commission’s first report launching the Annual Migration Management Cycle under the Pact on Migration and Asylum (see related article).
While the EPP and ECR groups have welcomed this as a good step – albeit an insufficient one that needs to be supplemented by rapid agreements pertaining to regulations on the return of illegal immigrants and the concepts of ‘safe third countries’ and ‘safe countries of origin’ – the left-wing groups have already expressed fears of an imbalance in solidarity contributions.
With Fabrice Leggeri (French) voicing these, PfE denounced the new “Islamist wolf in the European sheepfold” framed as the obligation, in its view, for Member States to “welcome migrants” or face a “heavy financial penalty”.
According to PfE, the Pact is a “Pact of Shame that forces Member States to capitulate in the face of migratory pressure”. Among the European Parliament’s left-wing groups, the S&D group, represented by Birgit Sippel (German), deplored the fact that governments had used the report to promote their own national political interests, criticising the “unconstructive behaviour” of the German Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt.
On 14 October in Luxembourg, he admitted that he had sought to influence the content of the European Commission’s reports, thereby delaying the process.
While the elected representatives did not appreciate the delay in the publication of the Commission’s work in relation to the date set by law in the Pact for launching each solidarity cycle (15 October each year), on the left, they also deplored the fact that the solidarity exercise mainly relies on nine Member States, since the European Commission has identified 18 countries in difficulty. As one of these nine countries, Hungary has always made it clear that it does not wish to take part in the measures set out in the Pact, and even less so with regard to solidarity measures.
Although those countries said to be ‘at risk of being put under pressure’ will have to make a real contribution to solidarity by receiving aid in return, the left-wing MEPs fear that this will “reproduce imbalances”, as Mélissa Camara (Greens/EFA, French) phrased it.
“Most countries are said to be ‘under pressure’, and therefore exempt from welcoming refugees; in the end, it is nine countries who have to show solidarity”, deplored the MEP.
Spain's Estrella Galán, speaking on behalf of The Left, also criticised the European Commission for abandoning the countries of the South. “You have decided that nine countries out of 27 can contribute or show solidarity, and that they can make a choice to receive or to pay; this à la carte solidarity is not acceptable”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)