Magnus Brunner, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, and Nicholas Ioannides, the Cypriot Deputy Minister for Migration and International Protection, spoke before Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, on Monday 1 June to provide a final update on implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, ahead of the 12 June deadline.
In line with the assessment drawn up by the Commission in May (see EUROPE 13865/13), the situation remains mixed across the Member States. While a majority have reached “adequate capacity” in terms of facilities and staffing for border procedures, major work still remains to be done. This is notably the case for IT systems that are sometimes outdated, and for security measures to prevent migrants from absconding.
Mr Brunner nevertheless welcomed the adaptations of national legislation already under way in the Netherlands, France and Italy. On the technical aspects of Eurodac, “11 Member States have already notified to the Commission that they have put all the technical arrangements in place and 16 reported that they still face challenges, but expect to be able to solve these issues on time until the 12 June”, he specified, adding that eu-LISA (European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice) is already deploying fallback solutions for those lagging behind.
As for the persistent blockages over transfers of responsibility (‘Dublin transfers’), the Commission will publish two specific evaluation reports by 12 July and 15 October respectively, Mr Brunner announced.
For their part, MEPs were more pessimistic. Marieke Ehlers (PfE, Dutch) lashed out at demagogic promises, describing as “very naive” the idea that a country of entry could, in less than 12 weeks, determine the age, origin and sexual orientation of an undocumented person and have all this validated by a judge, when such a procedure currently takes “75 weeks” in the Netherlands. Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French) also demanded guarantees that operational failings by certain states would not weaken the entire European system.
Konstantinos Arvanitis (The Left, Greek) denounced sham solidarity based on financial compensation, fearing that countries of entry would become “a big prison for all those whom the northern countries do not want”.
Lastly, Anna Strolenberg (Greens/EFA, Dutch) questioned whether the administrative detention of families was compatible with standards for the protection of minors. In response, Mr Ioannides assured that respect for human rights and international law remained “a red line for many Member States”, while admitting that the Pact would have to be judged in practice on the ground. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)