On arrival at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 1 October, several European interior and migration ministers expressed interest in a potential mechanism to “suspend” asylum procedures in the event of a “weaponised” migration crisis. This would be incorporated into the “emergency response framework” announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her State of the Union address (see EUROPE 13939/3).
This proposal, put forward by Greece, comes two months after the influx of more than 70,000 Moroccans into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (see EUROPE 13922/7), an event cited by Danish Minister for Integration Morten Bødskov as “an example of what we should not do”.
“There must be a clear distinction between movements of people fleeing a humanitarian emergency and movements driven by criminal networks and disinformation”, insisted German Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. In the latter scenario, he argued “it isn’t for criminals to decide how procedures are conducted”.
The Pact on Migration and Asylum, in force since June, already includes a ‘crisis protocol’ that allows for derogations from standard asylum rules when migration flows are encouraged for the purpose of destabilisation. This could involve extending the timeframes for registering applications or prolonging the duration of border screening or detention procedures.
The proposal currently under consideration would go further by suspending procedures for all new arrivals, without individual assessments. In practice, this could amount to a “pushback”, a term used on Thursday by Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, who had proposed such a measure at European level in 2022.
“We cannot operate under the current regulations” during crises like the one in Ceuta, he argued, noting that EU Council Directive 2001/55 allows for individual assessments to be bypassed in order to grant protection during mass influxes caused by conflicts. “Why shouldn’t the same apply in the reverse scenario?”, he asked.
The EPP group adopted a similar position in an internal resolution passed on Tuesday, calling for a suspension of asylum procedures and “returns without individual assessments” in the event of “hybrid attacks”. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)