France says it is willing to reopen EU negotiations on the Migration Pact and test the limits of the Schengen agreements, new Home Affairs Minister Bruno Retailleau announced, following in the footsteps of an increasing number of member states.
EU laws are not fit for purpose and are no longer suited to the “migration disorders” that he believes France and the EU are experiencing, Retailleau told French TV broadcaster TF1 on Monday (23 September).
“We must review EU legislations that are no longer adapted, I’m thinking first and foremost of the ‘return’ directive… It is time we change EU rules,” the new minister said.
Retailleau’s rhetoric will catch few observers by surprise. His appointment as France’s new migration chief is widely seen as an olive branch to the far-right in exchange for their support of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s fragile government – and he has wasted no time in living up to that expectation.
Moreover, his remarks add to a growing chorus of national governments who have taken aim at Brussels over migration policy in recent weeks.
The new Dutch government unveiled its toughest asylum reform in modern political history last week, while Germany surprised the EU when it announced it would bring back checks over all land borders for a six-month period.
Hungary and Sweden, among others, are also pursuing a repressive immigration policy agenda, even if this means breaching EU law.
“We can create a sort of alliance with other member states that want to be more firm on immigration,” Retailleau said, hinting at translating this national discontent into renewed European-level action.
The new French minister effectively suggested a review of the Asylum and Migration Pact, a series of EU-wide legislative files that were adopted in May after years of fraught interinstitutional talks.
The Pact, which EU capitals must now implement over the next two years, looks to strengthen the bloc’s response to irregular migration, better share the responsibility of the EU’s external border control with first-entry countries through a new ‘solidarity’ mechanism, and implement ‘pre-screening’ checks before irregular migrants set foot in the EU.
NGOs have expressed their grave concerns on the Pact as it stands, but to some on the right side of the aisle, the Pact does not go far enough.
“The [Migration] Pact does not provide us with all the necessary means to protect the European Union from illegal immigration,” a senior EPP MEP told Euractiv last week under the condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“Return policy is still blocked, even though it is urgent to tackle. We must also move forward with further investments for border protection infrastructures in first-entry countries,” they added.
Germany’s border checks could embolden Michel Barnier’s tough-on-immigration stance
Germany’s decision on Monday (9 September) to introduce checks at all national border crossings to curb irregular migration may put pressure on France to respond, with President Emmanuel Macron’s party seeming in favour of a tougher stance on migration policy.
Schengen overhaul
It is not just the Migration Pact that Retailleau and other EU counterparts want to renegotiate. They are also ready to propose an overhaul of the Schengen agreements, which allow for the free movement of people across EU member states.
“We have implemented border checks starting in November 2015 [following the Paris terrorist attacks]. Let’s see how far we can go [to make these checks permanent],” Retailleau said.
Eight member states currently have border checks in place, most of them citing “migratory pressures”.
“We are seeing what a socialist Chancellor is doing [on border controls], what a socialist minister is doing in Denmark, what a socialist PM is doing in the UK, this should be a wake-up call for us,” Prime Minister Michel Barnier – whose tough immigration views are no secret – said on Sunday.
Temporary border checks are allowed under EU law as long as they are justified to the European Commission. Making them permanent would require a significant legal change.
It will be down to the new Austrian Commissioner-designate for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to engage with these member states, and coordinate an EU response to avoid policy fragmentation.
The mission letter Commission president Ursula von der Leyen addressed to Brunner includes overseeing the implementation of “recent improvements to the Schengen framework” and “steer further reflections on innovative operational solutions to counter irregular migration”.
Retailleau has also announced he would seek to agree new ‘migration’ deals with Maghreb countries, resembling the Italy-Albania model, and rewrite the bilateral Paris-Algiers deal that lifts visa obligations for Algerians wanting to settle in France.
[Edited by Owen Morgan]
Source: euractiv.com
