EU interior ministers agreed to classify ‘non state actors’ such as NGOs on a par with Russia and Belarus in causing increased levels of migration, as they agreed their position on a new crisis management law.
The text agreed by ministers on Wednesday (4 October) on the Crisis Management Regulation identifies ‘non-state actors’ and third countries such as Russia and Belarus as potential causes of the process known as ‘instrumentalisation’ a pattern where non-EU states encourage and facilitate migration to “destabilise the Union and member states”, the text seen by Euractiv states.
Only Hungary and Poland voted against the text, which was adopted on Wednesday (4 October), while Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria abstained, Euractiv has learned from a diplomatic source.
The Crisis Management Regulation is one of the key files of the Pact on migration and asylum and aims to deal with situations when a large number of people arrive at the EU border in a short period of time.
Last week, ‘instrumentalisation’ was added by ministers in the Crisis Management Regulation to the list of cases of ‘crisis’, together with situations of “mass influx” and subsequent massive movements of people provoked by events such as war, climate or humanitarian emergencies.
Instrumentalisation describes cases where non-EU countries, such as Russia and Belarus, encourage and facilitate the arrival at EU borders of a large number of people in a short period of time, a tactic used in 2022 by Belarus and Morocco.
On 28 September, the Italian government blocked the negotiations demanding that NGOs also be included as a factor in ‘instrumentalisation’, a reference to NGOs conducting rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea.
The paragraph was eventually not included in the adopted text, however, but ministers also deleted text which stated that “humanitarian aid operations according to European standards shall not be considered as instrumentalisation of migrants when there is no aim to destabilise the Union or a Member State”.
In addition, “non-state” actors are included in the definition of instrumentalisation cases.
“Where a third country or non-state actor encourages or facilitates the movement of third country nationals and stateless persons to the external borders or to a Member State, with the aim of destabilising the Union or a Member State where such actions are liable to put at risk essential functions of a Member State, including the maintenance of law and order or the safeguard of its national security,” EU ministers put in the text.
Hard negotiations
The migration and asylum pact is composed of ten legislative proposals that EU lawmakers aim to approve before the end of the legislative mandate. According to a roadmap the institutions agreed last year, all the files must be approved before mid-February 2024.
The European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the file in April and was pushing ministers to proceed with a vote on the legislation. If the institutions do not manage to approve the files before next June’s European elections, the EU would face the second failure in a decade to create an EU framework to deal with migration.
EU ministers also want to give the Council of Ministers more power to decide whether a situation can be termed a ‘crisis’, how to define it, what constitutes a ‘fair’ approach to solidarity and what derogations have to be approved, Euractiv understands.
The vote among EU ministers comes amid growing political pressure. On 20 September, the European Parliament blocked negotiations on other key migration files – the amendment of Eurodac and the Screening Regulation – until ministers had finalised their position on the Crisis Management Regulation.
MEPs halt negotiations on two key migration laws in new standoff with ministers
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).
Migration will be one of the main issues for Europeans ahead of next June’s European Parliament elections.
Interinstitutional negotiations, known as trilogues, are set to begin between MEPs and ministers within weeks on the Crisis Management, Eurodac and Screening files.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
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Source: euractiv.com
