The European Parliament will consider blocking the migration and asylum pact if EU ministers continue to ‘cherry-pick’ the parts they like and refuse to discuss the issues they have no interest in, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, one of the MEPs leading Parliament’s negotiations, said on Monday (25 September).
The New Pact on Migration and Asylum, proposed by the EU Commission in September 2020, is a flagship piece of EU legislation covering a series of files which look to revise and update the bloc’s migration policy.
EU ministers are discussing whether to cut some key parts of the solidarity mechanism contained in the Crisis Regulation, for which Aguilar is Parliament’s rapporteur, such as the derogation on accepting asylum applications in cases of ‘instrumentalisation’ and to make asylum procedures easier for minors under 12 years old, EURACTIV has learned from different sources close to the matter.
‘Instrumentalisation’ refers to cases when a third country, such as Russia or Belarus, encourages the migration of third-country nationals to the EU, as is already happening at the border with Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
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“We are ready to put to a halt to negotiations, the rest of the files, including Eurodac and screening, unless the Council makes up its mind on the Crisis Regulation because the element of solidarity, binding solidarity when needed […] is also an element of the balance that we want to strike,” Aguilar said in a video message to an event held by thinktank the European Policy Centre on Monday (25 September).
The pact is composed of ten legislative proposals that EU institutions have committed to finalising before the end of the current legislative mandate in June 2024.
The laws are interlinked and aim to create a harmonised continent-wide framework of migration management when third-country nationals arrive on EU soil and ask for international protection.
The Crisis Management Regulation, one of the key files of the pact, is currently stuck with EU ministers who have not agreed to a common position, Euractiv has learned from diplomatic sources.
According to sources close to the matter, member states are discussing measures that would make the draft law significantly different to what the European Parliament agreed in its negotiating position on the file in spring.
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The crisis regulation aims at creating an EU framework for the management of migration flows within Europe in a crisis situation, such as when member states are struggling to deal with large numbers of arrivals.
Tensions between the EU institutions escalated last week and the Parliament said that they would block two key files – the ‘Screening’ file and a bill to amend rules on the EU’s asylum database, Eurodac, if EU ministers continue to block talks on the crisis regulation.
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The European Parliament has suspended negotiations on two files in the EU’s proposed migration pact if EU ministers do not proceed with the so-called ‘crisis management’ regulation, MEPs announced on Wednesday (20 September).
Since then, Euractiv has learned from a diplomatic source that the member states will try to advance the negotiations on the crisis management file in order to prompt Parliament to lift the suspension on the Eurodac and Screening files.
However, this week Aguilar went further, saying he would not rule out a full block of the pact if EU ministers pursued an approach of “cherry-picking based on interests”.
“We cannot accept that the Council is cutting pieces of the new pact on migration and asylum according to its will,” Aguilar said on Monday.
“We cannot accept that the Council is cutting pieces of the #NewPact on Migration & Asylum according to its will. Cherry-picking based on interests is not admissible”, says MEP @JFLopezAguilar in a video for today’s @epc_eu & @EgmontInstitute Policy Dialogue. pic.twitter.com/rSw6UbnJIu
— EuropeanPolicyCentre (@epc_eu) September 25, 2023
Euractiv has also learned from a diplomatic source that during Thursday’s (28 September) meeting of EU home affairs ministers, a discussion will be held on the problems with the crisis management regulation. However, officials are not expecting the deadlock to be broken during the meeting, the source concluded.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox/Nathalie Weatherald]
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